You Better Get Here Soon
by A. Kline
Summary: An accident happened after sectionals that led to a series of fortunate events. S1.
1. 1

**You better get here soon; please don't make too much of it [I won't get out alive; take it easy on me]**

* * *

><p>She doesn't think about Finn or Puck, her baby girl, the way Miss Pillsbury screamed, the way Mr. Schuester looked when Quinn had admitted to babygate, the way no one in Glee had looked surprised, the way Puck's face is going to look tomorrow, or the tears falling down her pale cheeks. She doesn't think about any of that as she sat in a hidden away alcove on a hidden away bench. She thinks about the fact that Rachel Berry had used her. <em>Tricked me<em>, she thinks lividly. She bit her lower lip and let out a biting laugh;_ yeah Q, it figures that man hands would have the balls that you've never seemed to have. So why can't I be mad at her_?

No, Quinn isn't thinking about any of those important thoughts as she sits in her corner, wishing her white cardigan were long sleeved as a rush of cold air passes by her. She licked her lips, tasting salt, as she wrung her hands in her lap. Disgusted with herself, she pondered repeatedly,_ why am I not mad at her_?_ I hate her; she ruined me. She ruined me. She… saved me_. Sighing, she crooked her neck to the left as she smelled vanilla and hairspray. Her focus stayed in space as Rachel Berry made her way, slowly, into Quinn's peripheral.

"I'm so sorry," she breathed, sounding breathless, terrified, horrible and… completely sure of herself, "I fully understand if you want to beat me up. Just avoid my nose."

Quinn isn't sure when she tore her gaze away from nothing and put it on Rachel, but she almost - almost - smiled when she saw Rachel's eyes shut tightly._ As if I could make that nose any bigger with a punch_. Her humor never reached her eyes though, the only thing in those was Rachel's blurred version, and God if that isn't bad enough on a good day.

"I'm not mad at you." Rachel's eyes opened and she let out a breath that she fully thought Quinn would be knocking out of her. Quinn, in turn, tried to keep the shock of still not being mad at Rachel out of her eyes and tone as she continued, "All you did was something I wasn't brave enough to do - tell the truth." Her voice was quiet and lacking the usual - or any - venom that it has when speaking to Rachel. Maybe Quinn just doesn't have it in her anymore to hate Rachel. Quinn doesn't know why, but Rachel takes that as an invitation to sit down next to her on the small bench.

"I-I was selfish when I told him." All of her attention was on Quinn who, consequently, was back to staring off into space. Rachel's heart was beating far more erratically than it ever had before and her senses were overwhelmed with Quinn's silence and her smell of strawberry lip-gloss. She shook her head, "I wanted to break you two up so he would want to be with me."

This wasn't news to Quinn, but it said something to her that Rachel was outright admitting it._ I could use it against her; break her back right now like she broke me_. However, the only thing that passed past Quinn's lips was the broken thought that meant nothing to her right then, "And now neither of us have him."

Except maybe it means something because she lost the only damn person that wasn't completely worthless in her life, Finn. _And fuck it hurts so bad to do this alone, but I've hurt so many people… maybe I just need to be alone. Maybe the hurting just needs to… stop_. She voiced her thoughts. "I have hurt so many people."

She didn't even pause to wonder why she's talking to Rachel, or why it's so easy._ But she has someone_, she thought, she had Rachel._ I could talk to Rachel… I could explain why I did this… no. I may hate her, but I owe her, I think. And if I make her leave now I won't end up hurting her, and then we'll be even. I don't want to be in debt, and I don't want to hurt her… win-win, right?_

So Quinn closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and got rid of the last person that could have actually saved her life. "Can you go now? I just really wanna be alone."

Rachel looked away at the word "go" because it's really just another slash into her heart. She didn't note how Quinn's eyes were full of tears, she could hear it in her voice. _Who was I kidding? I paid my dues, I apologized. I don't owe her any more, and she doesn't want any more from me_. Rachel chanced one more look Quinn's way before she stood up and wondered, _so why do I want to save her? Why is this killing me_? She smoothed her skirt and walked away; with every step trying to ignore the burning on her back or the searing throbs coming from her chest.

Quinn watched her for a half a second before closing her eyes and cocking her head even further to the left._ Don't you call out to her. Don't you say a damn word_. She did open her eyes however when she hears a gruffer set of footsteps over Rachel's soft ones. As Rachel left, Puck walked past her, and they both stopped to look at each other. Puck could barely meet her eyes, and Quinn groaned inwardly as Rachel gave him a look fit for a pile of dog crap on the bottom of her favorite ballerina shoes. Quinn's heart beat faster as she felt a sense of déjà vu, which she blamed on the hormones. Her heart dropped when Rachel continued on though, _why would she have come back? Why would she have like, punched Puck?_ _That kind of stuff isn't done for girls like me, and rightfully so_.

Rachel's not sure if she'd ever disliked anyone as much as she disliked Noah right then. She made it known with a pointed look, and she wondered if she should turn around and go back to Quinn. She shook the thought out of her head as she continued on; _Quinn doesn't want my help_. _Besides, she and Noah got themselves into this, now they have each other_. That vindictive thought didn't make her feet any less heavy as she counted the steps away from Quinn.

* * *

><p>The win at sectionals and the impromptu performance for Mr. Schuester were only temporary fixes for Finn's mood, Rachel knew that. The minute they finished and Schuester bolted out of the room - "He's going after her!" Mercedes had shouted excitedly - Finn's mood fell once again. One look at Quinn and Finn had grabbed his stuff and bolted from the room, Rachel fast on his heel.<p>

"Finn! Finn, wait!" She called, speed walking to the best of her ability but failing to compete with his giant-sized strides. At least it was long past the school hour being over, so they were the only ones in the hallway that she knew of.

She winced as he threw his backpack at his locker, causing the entire row to shake heavily. Non-deterred, Rachel quickly minimized the gap between them and laid a small hand on his heaving back. Finn jumped as if he was just burned and turned around too fast. It all happened too fast. Rachel was too close, Finn was too mad, time moved too fast and Finn's open hands were flailing too madly as he whirled around. Rachel was too close. He backhanded her face hard. Hard enough to knock her stumbling away from him.

Time chose then to stop. Finn stood there, frozen, his hands still up in an exasperated position. Rachel now stood five feet away from him, her hands cupping the right side of her face, eyes open in shock and full of tears. Rachel wasn't sure if she'd ever seen Finn so shocked.

"Oh, God. Oh, God, Rachel I-I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen, I-I didn't know you were standing so… Oh God," he stuttered, taking a step towards her and extending his hand to her. She winced as she saw his hand moving toward her and that was enough for him to draw back.

Rachel didn't take her eyes off Finn as she choked out brave and quiet sobs. She lowered her hands from her face and saw Finn gasp,_ it must already be bruising_. He took another step toward her and she took a step back, putting her hands up. Taking another step back, Rachel wrapped her arms around her body and sped off back towards the Glee room. Finn stood in the hall, a tear or two escaping his eyes as he watched her run from him.

* * *

><p>Everyone was so busy in their own groups talking about sectionals that no one paid Rachel any attention when she came rushing back into the room. Not that they paid her any attention, anyway. Brittany was the first to notice, taking a moment to smile at the newcomer in the band room when she saw it was Rachel. She gasped over Quinn's head, and Santana immediately grabbed her hand and turned to Brittany, "What's wrong Brit?"<p>

Brittany's eyes watered with worry as she asked across the room, "Rachel, Rachel what happened? Did someone finally hit you for talking too much?" The room went silent, and everyone but Quinn turned to gape at Rachel.

Her plan of grabbing her backpack, running out of the building and going to a secluded spot to sob and clean herself up before going home was ruined by the only person in the room who took notice to her. Rachel tried to keep the right side of her face hidden from the room as she hoisted her backpack up onto her shoulder as she mumbled, "No I just had an accident. It's fine."

Turning towards the door, she gasped when she saw Puck standing in front of it, effectively blocking her only way out. Rachel's eyes burned holes into the ground as her breathing became labored and tears pooled in her eyes again. Not to mention, her face hurt like a truck or something had hit her.

Quinn was the last to turn around, not wanting to connect the pieces that were already connected in her head. Rachel had chased a furious Finn out into the hall. Rachel comes back, sans Finn, with - she turned around and saw it. From her right eye down to her chin, swollen; parts of it were already very black and blue, with a cut right under her eye. Finn wears a ring. She heard Santana growl low in her throat, and Mercedes mumbled "Oh hell, nah," and Quinn knew they knew.

Rachel knew that they knew. She turned back to Noah and pleaded, "Please, please let me out, Noah." His gaze softened but he shook his head.

"Rachel did Finn-?" but he was cut off as shudders wracked Rachel's small body. Brittany ran forward, as did Mercedes and Tina, and they helped Rachel into a chair. Mike and Matt joined Puck on either side of the door. Kurt stayed where he was, but his eyes immediately searched for Quinn's. Quinn's gaze hadn't moved from Rachel's face though. She felt Santana shaking in anger next to her and wondered when Santana had started caring about the mini diva. Not that it mattered. Quinn's fury was building by the second, and her calm exterior was her perfect armor.

Brittany was holding Rachel's face in her hands, and Mercedes was holding a cold water bottle up to her face. Artie, who had rolled up to her side, was the first to speak. "Rachel, did Finn do this to you?"

Rachel winced and whispered "It was an accident." That was enough for Puck, Matt, and Mike. They were out of that room before Rachel could stop them from going. _Maybe Finn deserves it. No_… she winced again,_ if anyone in this room deserved to be hit it was me._ She shook away Mercedes ministrations lightly, "It was an accident. And besides, I deserved it."

Rachel's words echoed in Quinn's head loud enough to snap her resolve. Apparently, it was enough to snap Santana as well, because the now furious Cheerio gruffly pushed by Quinn as she stormed out of the room. Brittany stood to call after her, but thought better of it, mumbling something about "Santana needs to do this so she won't be grumpy."

Quinn, now the only person who wasn't by Rachel's side - except Kurt, and that's because he was still in his chair giving Quinn this weird look like _he knows something I don't or something_ - silently thanked Santana. Still not taking her eyes off Rachel's broken face, words echoed through her head._ Just avoid my nose. As if I could make it any bigger with a punch. Win-win. Just go._ She finally approached Rachel and barely registered Tina and Artie's whispered "It's going to be okay, you'll be okay" and Brittany's soft, "Santana will take care of him. Don't worry; your nose will be okay."

Quinn laid her hand on Brittany's shoulder and made eye contact. Suddenly Quinn was the one kneeling in front of Rachel, and all Rachel could do was look into those hazel eyes and want to apologize. For what, she had no idea. Quinn didn't touch Rachel, it was a rule that she wouldn't break even then, but she took in Rachel's wound up close. She whispered to Brittany to go get some cold sodas from the vending machine. Money was exchanged, and Kurt left with Brittany to get more cold compresses.

Then it was just them. Rachel winced as Quinn took over holding the cold water bottle to her face. Rachel whispered, "Don't be mad at him."

Quinn didn't raise an eyebrow or have any emotion for that matter, but she did meet Rachel's eyes. On the inside, Quinn had never been so mad. Even when she found out that Puck had gotten her pregnant, or that her parents were kicking her out. This was different. Everything was different now. She took in a heavy breath.

"Please," Rachel pleaded.

Quinn snapped and hissed through her teeth "God, damnet Berry. I know you're not this moronic."

Rachel's mouth snapped shut and more tears began to form in her eyes, and she winced at how badly it stung her face to cry. Quinn closed her eyes and sucked in a breath and _hell, everything is different now anyway_. She softly lifted up Rachel's chin so that they were meeting eyes again as Quinn whispered, "I'm not mad at you, man hands. I need to know...what happened?"

Everyone who was left in the room grew quiet as Rachel's eyes darted around them. Quinn dropped her hand from Rachel's chin and set it on the shorter girl's knee. "It's okay, you can tell us. It's just us here."

Rachel's gaze flickered to Quinn and then back down to the ground. She took in exactly five deep breaths - a breathing technique used to calm the nerves that had never failed her before now - and she told them. Well, she told Quinn mainly,_ but only because she was right in front of me_, she placated herself with. She told them how everything went too fast, how Finn was too mad, and how Rachel was dumb and deserved it anyway.

"Stop saying that," Quinn harshly whispered as Rachel finished. Rachel jumped slightly, moving a little away from Quinn. Closing her eyes, the blond caught her breath and let her heart calm down, "I mean, you didn't deserve it, okay? So please, stop saying that."

Rachel nodded wordlessly, her own hand gripping the one Quinn had set on her knee. She chanced the phrase once more, "It was an accident though." She looked around the room at everyone's furious expression, and she couldn't understand why they cared so much. "Why do you guys care so much? I would've thought…"

"That we'd be happy about this?" Mercedes asked, incredulously, after a beat of silence.

"Maybe that's a little lesson on what you've all reduced Berry to," Santana hissed from the doorway.

"Since when do you care, Lopez? And why are you not included in the group of people who have screwed Berry up?" Mercedes jeered from her position at Rachel's side. Quinn didn't take her eyes off Rachel's face though, so she saw the fresh tears in the brunette's eyes.

"All of you shut the hell up," Quinn snapped, "Think about the way you're going to answer her. We all care about you, Berry. Apparently we needed something really bad to happen to you before we realized it, though," Quinn said, her voice dropping significantly at the last part.

"That's going to change," Tina solemnly and quietly swore. Everyone in the group nodded, but Quinn was too pissed at everyone to care._ These idiots are the most selfish, self-indulgent hyenas that I've ever known._ She sighed, finally taking her eyes off Rachel, "S, is it taken care of?"

Santana's hands were bruised, but Quinn knew that Brittany would take care of that later. Quinn was just thankful that Santana had run out of the room before she had, because Quinn honestly thought that she would have killed Finn.

"It's done, Q. I think we all need to head home, now," Santana mumbled, nursing her hands. Brittany and Kurt came with arm full's of soda, and the group sat for a few more minutes, calming and tending to Rachel. Artie, Tina, and Mercedes left first. Kurt offered Rachel a ride home, and Rachel numbly accepted.

Brittany and Santana left next, with Brittany cradling Santana's hands and cooing into her ear. Quinn walked with Kurt and Rachel to the parking lot, carrying both hers and Rachel's backpack. Puck, Matt, and Mike never came back to the room.

* * *

><p>After making sure Rachel was safely inside of Kurt's car, Quinn pulled Kurt aside. "Not one insult or bitchy comment to her."<p>

Kurt scoffed, looking genuinely insulted, "Look preggers, I may be a bitch but I'm not heartless." He softened, "Really, this… everything changed today. I don't think there's ever been a more exciting day in McKinley High history. Even babygate got trumped." Quinn smiled slightly. "You care about her, why?"

Quinn's head snapped up at this, "Maybe because everyone else just realized today that they did, and were too ignorant to keep that from her. And I don't care about her, I just owe her."

Kurt's eyes pierced through Quinn, effectively silencing her into dropping her head and shuffling her feet, "Just, make sure she gets home, okay? She hasn't even spoken…" She didn't finish the thought, and Kurt didn't pry.

He did question, however, "What's going to happen now? What do we do?"

Quinn shrugged, "Just get her home. I think we're all going to figure it out one day at a time from here."

"Together," Kurt said, resolutely.

"Together," Quinn whispered, "Sort of like a dysfunctional family."

Kurt smiled and walked to the driver's door, "Exactly."

Quinn watched them drive off and pull out of the parking lot before it hit her. "Where am I supposed to go?" she asked the empty parking lot. She'd been staying with Finn. Suddenly, her smile grew. She'd been staying with Finn. _Well, time to go home_. She smiled all the way to her car, eager to see the poor, little victimized Finn.


	2. 2

She fumbled for her phone, one hand shifting the car into park. "Hello?"

"Quinn."

She hesitated, eyeing the front door of Finn's house fondly, "Puck," she asked slowly, "is something wrong?"

A beat of silence and what Quinn thought sounded suspiciously like a wine cooler bottle being opened in the background, "Yeah, uhm, well after everything that happened today… I kind of ran out of the room before I could ask you. Uhm, you can't really stay at Finn's anymore."

Quinn leaned back in her car seat, the keys now sitting in her lap, "No, I'd suppose not. Is Finn even still alive?"

A rough and bitter laugh followed by "Yeah, he's still breathing. I'm sure you'll see soon anyway. Look, do whatever it is you need to do there and… I'll come get you. You can stay with me."

_Shit. He has a point… what other choice do I have? Brittany and Santana… yuck, I don't want to go to bed to those sounds every night. Maybe, Kurt? Mercedes… Tina… no. Damnet._ "Quinn? Are you… still there?" She didn't want to be mean to him; he had the best intentions, but…

"Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking. Was that a wine cooler that I heard you open in the background?" she asked.

"Uhm, yeah, it helps me unwind…" he trailed off, hesitation and confusion coating his voice.

Quinn smiled bitterly, "I'm sorry Puck," she whispered, "I get it, you're trying to help. And I appreciate it; it's more than anyone else is willing to do. But I don't think staying with you would be the wisest decision."

"Well, where the hell are you going to stay then? I don't want you staying with him."

Quinn sneered at the anger in his voice, "So nice of you to care. Puck, let's be civil about this. I told you before, I'm doing this alone. And besides, I already have a place to stay."

"Where?"

Quinn faltered. _Yeah Quinn, where_? "Look, I'll tell you later, okay? I promise. But I have to go. Bye." She hung up before he could reply, but something told her he had already hung up on her. Grabbing her bag, she made her way to the front door, thanking the good Lord that Finn's mom wasn't home from work yet.

Quinn sped through the unnaturally quiet house to her half-assed basement bedroom, dropping off her bag. She took the steps up to Finn's room two at a time, still holding all of her anger from earlier. Finn's door was open and she could vaguely hear Journey coming from his laptop speakers. She peeked her head into the doorway slowly, and cursed herself for letting most of her anger leave her when she saw him.

Finn was sitting in the middle of his bed, homework scattered across his lap, quietly singing along to - and Quinn laughed at the sadness of this - Don't Stop Believin'. She sighed and knocked softly on the doorframe. Finn jumped a little, then put his pencil down and stared Quinn down, "Look, before you say anything, I think you should know-"

"I don't have anything to say to you," she interrupted.

He arched an eyebrow, and Quinn gestured at his face in an exasperated way, because he should have just known what she meant._ This is why we didn't last_, she thought sadly. "Finn, have you seen yourself? Your face is one giant ball of swollen, and I can just imagine what the rest of you looks like."

Finn sighed and blinked back what Quinn prayed weren't more tears; she felt bad for him, but his tears weren't as justified as Rachel's. "Finn… I'm sorry, for everything. And I'm not expecting you to forgive me, and I know you're going to hate me. And that's okay. But that is separate from this," as she gestured to his face again, "You may not think so, but I do have the right to hate you for this. While you have the right to hate me for this," gesturing to her stomach.

Finn slouched, "I meant it. I'm done with you, Quinn."

Quinn nodded, "I'm glad, because after you hit Rachel I decided that I was done with you. And if I wasn't pregnant and afraid you'd hurt the baby, I'd slap you."

Finn stood up angrily, "Now wait just a second, you know I'd never hit a girl!"

Quinn stood her ground, staring straight up at Finn like she always does when she's mad, "Rachel."

Finn lost his fight and slouched, "It was an accident, the worst thing I've… ever, done."

Quinn nodded, "You're right. You're entitled to an accident. But hear me now, if you ever hurt her again, or even get near her, you won't only have the wrath of Glee to deal with, but you'll have me to deal with."

"Since when did you start caring about Rachel? You always hated her."

"Since everything changed. Besides, I still hate her. I'm packing my stuff now and leaving, thank you for letting me stay here as long as you did, and thank your mom for me, please."

Finn started toward Quinn, "Wait, that's it? I got beat up by the guys and… well… I'm not allowed to talk about what Santana did but, I thought that I'd get some sort of hell from you."

Quinn slowly turned back around to Finn, eyebrow cocked, "Finn, the hell I could give you for this is nothing - nothing compared to the hell you're going to have to live with. Or the hell you're going to get seeing Rachel's face tomorrow, if she's even at school. Besides, I'm saving my hell for if you hurt her again. Hurting man hands is my job, got it?"

Finn looked confused, so Quinn sighed in annoyance and waited for him to get to his point, "You called her man hands just now, but you have been calling her Rachel. You never call her Rachel…"

Quinn's calm composure cracked, just a little, when she realized _oh crap, I have. I cannot keep breaking all of my rules_. "I was simply trying to make a point. Now," she sighs sadly, "we start our life being done with each other." With that, Quinn nodded sadly, exchanged one last longing glance with Finn, and turned to pack her bags. While packing, she texted Brittany.

* * *

><p>Santana sat on the edge of Brittany's bed, both girls out of their cheerleading uniforms and in sweats. Santana's were black and Brittany's were pink.<p>

"So she's going to be like, living here? What is she, some sort of hobo?"

Brittany sighed and put down her pencil, pushing her chair back from her desk. "Isn't a hobo someone who doesn't have a place to stay?"

Santana nodded curtly, once.

"Well," Brittany said slowly, trying to make Santana understand because clearly the poor girl was confused, "she does have somewhere to stay, here! So I don't think that makes her a hobo."

Santana closed her eyes and counted to ten, "Brit, I get that. I'm just… you know what? Never mind, you're right," she finished, smiling at Brittany and earning a smile for herself. "Where is she going to stay?"

Brittany looked at the wall to their right, "In the guest room, on the other side of that wall," she pointed at it. "It's a pink room, so I think she'll like it."

Santana glared at the wall, "She better not bug us."

Brittany giggled, "She won't bug us, silly. Now, get your hands back in the bucket."

Santana looked at the bucket sitting on the bed next to her, her eyes wide with bleakness, "B… I don't want to put my hands back in the bucket of butter. They don't hurt that bad and I don't think…" she trailed off when she saw Brittany's hurt expression. The blond had remembered that when she got a burn, her mom had always made her stick the burn in butter and it had made her feel better. So when Santana came home with her with her bruised hands burning, she thought for sure this would help.

Santana sighed and put her hands back in the bucket, faking a smile and lying with "No, you know, you're right! They are starting to feel better." The doorbell echoed Brittany's squeal of delight. She pulled back and ran out of the room, announcing to the entire house that Quinn was there.

* * *

><p>Quinn walked into Brittany's room, hesitating at the threshold when she saw the look Santana was giving her. Quinn arched an eyebrow and set her shoulders, because after all, she wasn't the HBIC for nothing. "Santana."<p>

Santana rolled her eyes, "Cut the crap, Q. I'm glad you have a place to stay, but you're really being a cock block right now."

Quinn paused in setting down her suitcase, "Does that saying still apply when dealing with two girls?"

That actually threw Santana off, and Quinn couldn't help but chuckle as Brittany came bouncing in.

"Guys! I think we should bake Rachel cookies and then make Quinn take them to her."

Quinn did a double take, "Wait, what? Why me? I don't want to see stubbles."

Santana raised an eyebrow, but Brittany continued, "Well you seemed like you wanted her to feel better today, so I figured you'd want to take her cookies."

Quinn shook her head, "I doubt she wants to see anyone right now, B." Quinn took in the look Santana was giving her and quickly turned back to Brittany's sad face, "But maybe later, okay? Like, in a week!" Quinn was rewarded with a hug.

* * *

><p>It took three hours, but Quinn finally finished dialing the number on the phone after rehearsing the speech one more time. "Hello? Hi, okay, I need you to do something for me." A pause. "Why? Because I'm telling you to. Whoa, okay, and because it would be nice. I need you to go to the bakery on 6th street; you know, the nice one. Yes, the one with the expensive stuff."<p>

Quinn squinted at her laptop screen that was resting between her legs on Brittany's guest bed. Wikipedia flashed in her eyes as she rolled her eyes at the person on the phone, "I will pay you back! Okay? Just humor me. I need you to get the most expensive chocolate chip cookies that they have there. And then I want you to get a…" Quinn read the screen carefully, "A strudel."

Kurt sighed into the phone, "Quinn, what kind of strudel?"

Quinn paused. There are different kinds? "Uhm, whatever kind looks the best."

"Why am I buying overly priced cookies and a strudel?"

"Because overly priced cookies taste best and Rachel's Jewish."

"Quinn, did you Google 'Jewish cuisine'?"

A pause. "Actually, I just Googled 'Jewish food' but yeah it brought me to that. She's Jewish isn't she?"

"Well, she has the nose," Kurt sighed and held back an exasperated laugh, "Yeah, Quinn, she's Jewish."

"Okay. Then get her those things, take them to her house, and give them to her. I don't want you to leave that house until you see her, got it? But this was all your idea. If you want, you can say it was all of Glee's idea, but it just wasn't mine."

"Was it yours?"

"No, it was Brittany's." The line was quiet, and Quinn sighed, "It really was Brittany's, I just told her it was stupid. It is stupid. It's just… she was hit, okay? She was hit by someone that she thinks she's in love with, and - and I know what it's like to be hit by someone you thought you loved. Metaphorically, of course, because I just got knocked up but you get it. I'll pay you back, okay? It just didn't seem like anyone else was going to do anything and I don't want her to like, off herself or something. I just-"

"Quinn," Kurt interrupted with the sweetest smile on his face, "Quinn it's okay. I'll do it. I'll even be nice, but I will throw a temper tantrum if I don't get to see her. I'm assuming I'm supposed to report back to you on what condition she's in."

Quinn snapped, "No. I don't care that much, if she's in bad shape I'm sure you'll know what to do. I'll see you in Glee tomorrow. Thanks Hummel." She hung up and shut her laptop. Laying back into bed, she tried to drown out the cute, muffled words traveling through the wall from the next room. Putting her iPod on, she spent the rest of the night trying to figure out why anyone would ever eat something that was called a Matzah Ball.


	3. 3

Three in the morning slapped Quinn in the face as her cell phone started blaring Bright Eyes. She fumbled around the unfamiliar setting before remembering that, not only was she in Brittany's guest room, but her nightstand was now to the left. She squinted against the harsh light of her phone, silencing it while bringing it close to her eyes to see a text from Hummel.

"Just got home. Since I know you don't care, I won't tell you that I got the exact pastries you wanted, and that it took me an hour before Rachel would let me see her, let alone believe that I cared about her, the nerve of-" Quinn moved to the next text. "her, thinking I'm selfish or something."

Groaning, but suddenly far more awake than she would like to be, she hastily texted back, "Get to the point."

A vibrate. "The point is, Quinn, that she isn't mad at the oaf, per se, but she is terrified of him and everything, really. She flinches at the slightest movement, it's really quite sad. Anyway, she cried a lot. If you'd told me a day ago that Rachel Berry's nose could get any bigger I would've laughed in your face."

Quinn growled low in her throat and pounded out, "How bad does she look?" while resisting to add, "you vain, inconsiderate little man" to the end.

It seemed like it took Kurt forever to text back when she finally got, "Finn has huge hands, you know. One of them alone is the size of Rachel's face."

Quinn growled again, "I'm aware."

A pause - another vibrate. "She doesn't look good. Yeah, her face is bad. Her demeanor is worse. The golden star that is Rachel Berry has fizzled out, replaced by someone so small that you could step on her."

Quinn pondered this before sighing and texting, "Thanks, Kurt."

* * *

><p>If Rachel showing up to school the next day surprised anyone, they did a wonderful job of hiding it.<p>

_I don't blame them_, Rachel thought as she made her way down the hallway that was parted like the Red Sea, _adolescent violence in Lima isn't actually as prevalent as one would think. And it's not as if I could apply makeup to successfully cover it, although Kurt offered enough times_… She ignored the gawking teenagers, the hushed whispers; it's not as if they were anything new to her. What was new to her was the outfit she had chosen to wear that day (that really, she didn't even know that she had owned anything like this). Jeans and Converse from the Don't Stop Believin' performance and a red faded McKinley High hoodie that was two sizes too big. Rachel Berry was never one to not look her best; after all, one never knows when a Broadway casting director might show up. However, Rachel Berry does believe in being comfortable when going through one of the hardest situations in her life. At least she managed to curl her hair.

As she was putting her books away in her locker, wincing at every locker slam or loud outburst in the hallway, a shadow loomed over her. She gasped and shrunk into her locker before a reassuring, yet heavy, hand rested on her shoulder.

"You aren't going to be slushied today. I know that's probably the furthest thing from your mind but it wasn't in mine and so I made sure of it. Just so you know. I'm sorry," Puck rushed out, quickly stuffing both of his hands into his denim pockets. Rachel turned and hoped the tears that she felt weren't horribly obvious in her eyes as she looked at Puck. With his head down, he looked up at her through his eyelashes, hesitant. Rachel smiled, putting his fears aside as she hugged him.

"Thank you, Noah. You're right, that hadn't even crossed my mind today but if it had happened I'm sure it not only would've hurt my face but also what's left of my pride."

"You uhm, you don't need to be scared, Rachel. I'm going to be looking out for you."

Rachel's eyebrows furrowed as confusion flashed across her eyes, actually hurting Puck, "Why are you going to be looking out for me, Noah?"

Puck's eyebrows also furrowed, but his were in anger, "Damnit Rachel, because apparently you need someone to watch your back, someone who isn't, I don't know, gay or in a wheel chair. Not that they aren't helpful," he rushed out, quickly looking around for said gleeks, "but it's just, I just - I care about you, okay? And what happened wasn't right. So, you know, I'm a stud, so I'm here for you."

Rachel just nodded numbly, letting the boy leave before he burst into tears or something. Clutching her books tightly to her chest, Rachel made her way to first period, all the while having the feeling that she was being watched.

* * *

><p>In between first and second period, Rachel still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. She occasionally looked over her shoulder, only to see a student cussing or falling into a wall. Right before her classroom door, she managed to turn in time to see Artie quickly wheel himself behind a wall, effectively running over a student's foot.<p>

She hesitantly made her way to the wall and peeked around the corner, "Artie? Have you been following me?"

Artie flashed a sheepish smile while pushing up his glasses on his nose, "Kind of, yeah."

"Did you need something from me?"

"No."

Silence. "Okay, so, why are you following me?" Rachel calmly questioned.

Artie looked around the halls before answering, "I've been running over people's feet behind you."

Confusion flashed across Rachel's eyes as she tried to form a response for this. She finally came up with, "I'm sorry Artie, I'm not following."

"People are whispering behind your back, and every time they get close enough for you to hear I run over their foot so they can't finish their sentence."

Rachel looked horrified as she stammered out, "Artie are you insane? You don't need to hurt people. I always hear what they say about me, and I don't understand why you're doing this."

Artie narrowed his eyes in surprise, "You don't understand why I'm doing this?"

"I don't understand why you're doing this for me."

Artie couldn't even reply to that, and the bell for class rang anyway.

* * *

><p>"Kurt, Mercedes, I see you."<p>

Two lockers closed simultaneously, revealing a sunglass-clad Kurt and Mercedes to Rachel. Kurt, with his arms crossed and his hand daintily swirling the air replied, "Fine, you caught us. We were spying on you." Rachel could swear she heard The Pink Panther song playing somewhere.

"Why?"

"To figure out if it was indeed Rachel Berry hidden under those unisex clothes."

Kurt received a sharp elbow from Mercedes as she replied to Rachel, "We were just making sure no one got near you."

Rachel huffed angrily and stamped her foot, "Why is everyone suddenly so interested in my well-being? Have you all forgotten that this is ME we're dealing with?"

Mercedes and Kurt exchanged a look and Mercedes snapped, "Why are you so confused about this? We're looking out for you, Rachel."

Rachel shrunk back at the level of Mercedes voice but continued anyway, But why? I would think, you two especially, that this would be what you've wanted to happen for a while. Haven't you all said that you wanted someone to hit me?"

Mercedes and Kurt shared an astounded look before Rachel turned and walked to third period.

* * *

><p>During lunch, Rachel was chewing quietly on her celery sticks and sipping her green tea when suddenly a tall blonde was sitting across from her. Staring at her. Rachel set down her celery stick and stared back.<p>

More staring ensued.

Eventually Rachel calmly folded her hands primly on the table in front of her, "Brittany, why are you staring at me like that?"

Brittany opened her mouth to reply when Santana's voice came out, "Cool your jets, man-handled. Brittany's only following orders."

Rachel sighed as Santana sat down next to Brittany. Brittany immediately grabbed Santana's arm and began stroking it as Rachel looked at them with tired eyes, "Whose orders?"

Santana smirked, "God's."

Rachel quirked an eyebrow, "Are you even religious?"

Santana glared, "Drop it. We're not allowed to tell you, Berry."

Rachel let out a sound that should have only been coming from a frustrated kitten, "This is ridiculous; you guys are all insane."

"Because we're looking out for you?"

"Yes!" Rachel practically shouted. Lowering her voice when she saw that she had caught unwanted attention, she continued, "Yes. Santana you don't look out for anybody, no offense."

"None taken."

"Yet all of a sudden, you and everyone else in Glee are suddenly looking after me like you actually care about what ails me in my daily life. And you say they're some orders from someone else that you claim is "God" yet I somehow doubt that any of you talk to your god about me."

Santana scoffed, "Ails?"

Rachel sighed but Brittany interrupted, "Santana can't tell you who gave the orders because no one did."

Rachel raised her eyebrows as Santana glared daggers at Brittany, yet Brittany continued, "All of Glee club just decided that we're going to care about you now."

Santana closed her eyes and let out a sigh while Rachel's eyes dropped to the table. She let out a bitter laugh, "I see. So you all had some group meeting that said you were suddenly going to care about me because I was abused."

Santana's eyes suddenly snapped up and met Rachel's, "No. We had a meeting and decided that it was high time we pull the huge stick out of the Glee club's ass and start treating you the way we actually feel about you." Santana's eyes widened in terror as her mouth clamped shut. Brittany giggled and hugged her tightly and Rachel paused in her ministrations of shoveling her lunch back into her bag.

Standing up, and pulling Brittany up with her, Santana hissed furiously, "I don't know why I said that, Berry. It's probably Brittany's fault."

"Sorry, S," Brittany whispered with a frown on her face, "I do that to you a lot."

Santana continued, ignoring Brittany, "You better not tell anyone I said that. Just stop looking so damn confused when someone cares about you, it really pisses me off." With that, the two Cheerios stormed off, leaving Rachel staring wide-eyed at her celery sticks, wondering what the heck had happened to the world while she was sleeping last night.

* * *

><p>When Mike and Matt flanked Rachel on her way to fourth period after lunch, she merely smiled at them and hugged them both at her classroom door. When she left, they exchanged a sad look, both having seen the tears escaping the, now very quiet, diva's eyes.<p>

* * *

><p>Tina's eyes widened as Rachel came out of her fourth period class and immediately looked behind the trophy case, mumbling something about "You guys aren't as sneaky as everyone gives you credit for."<p>

Tina questioned Rachel on their way to fifth period, "You know we're doing this?"

Rachel shrugged, her arm looped through Tina's, "You guys are obvious. I just don't know why you're all going to such trouble."

Tina looked taken back, "Because we care about you Rachel."

Rachel was quiet until they reached her door, "That's just the thing. I'm not used to anyone caring about me, much less all of you guys that, what, two days ago, hated me."

"We never hated you," Tina whispered to the air, as Rachel has already slipped into her class.

* * *

><p><em>If my calculations are correct<em>, Rachel thought to herself while ignoring her fifth period math class, _the only two members left of Glee that haven't stalked me yet are Quinn and_… she gulped _ Finn_. _And somehow, I doubt they're even letting Finn near me, if he's even here_… She took a moment to think about how she hadn't seen Finn at all that day. Looking at the clock - five minutes left - Rachel turned back to her list of names, circling Quinn's. _Normally I would doubt that Quinn would even go out of her way to help a dying civilian, much less me. Yet after yesterday_… Rachel shook her head. _No, she still hates me. I'm sure no one even included her in that stupid meeting._

* * *

><p><em>Six hours before Rachel's math class; thirty minutes before school that day.<em>

_Quinn paced the music room while the rest of the Glee club - minus Finn - sat in silence. Santana spoke up, "Quinn, you're freaking us out."_

_The pregnant girl glared at everyone, "I don't care. We need to figure this time frame out."_

_Mercedes piped in, "Look, we all mutually agreed on this meeting, so I think each of us should have a turn in between periods."_

_"I'm with Santana!" Brittany said through a smile, while raising her hand._

_Kurt raised an eyebrow, "We all know that, dear. But we're talking about partners in keeping an eye on the golden girl."_

_Santana flushed and bit out, "You know what she meant, Hummel. But, yeah. Okay, me and Brittany can take lunch, since we like, don't eat anyway."_

_Puck glanced warily at Quinn before speaking up, "I'll take before school and, I don't know… all day. I already talked to all of the jocks and stuff. I'll just be keeping an eye on her all day, and an eye out for Finn." That earned him a small smile from Quinn._

_Kurt and Mercedes did their secret handshake thing as Kurt said, "We'll take after second period. That's when we go to our lockers to fix our hair, anyway."_

_Artie and Tina talked heatedly before Artie raised his hand, "Me and Tina will split up, since we're assuming Mike and Matt will be partners."_

_Mike and Matt fist bumped as Artie continued, "I'll take after first."_

_"And I'll take after fourth," Tina offered._

_"We'll take after lunch," Mike offered._

_Puck spoke directly to Quinn, "That leaves you. If you don't want to do it, it's fine, I can just take-"_

_Quinn snapped, interrupting him, "I can handle watching man-hands for ten minutes, Puck. It's not as if it's hard to miss all of that stubble, anyway. I'll take the rest of the day."_

_Santana and Kurt raised an eyebrow at Quinn but said nothing as the group exchanged high fives and hurried out of the music room to start school._

* * *

><p>Rachel shook her head over her notes, crossing out Quinn's name and faulting herself for circling it. <em>I'm sure I'll just see Noah again. That's fine; I can ask him about the new solos for Glee anyway, he needs to start pulling his weight as a male lead, again.<em> Rachel had an entire mini lecture planned out by the time she left fifth period. She exited the classroom and looked around, seeing no one. Shrugging, she began to make her way through the crowd when she felt a hand quickly grab her elbow.

She whirled around and held her binders in front of her face, her breath catching in her throat with only a whimper escaping. The hand dropped and Rachel closed her eyes tightly, remembering that her fellow gleeks were stalking her, and suddenly her mini lecture comes back to her. "Noah, you scared me. You shouldn't sneak up on-" her words died in her throat however as she saw Quinn standing in front of her, confusion painting her features.

"Noah? God Rachel, I may be pregnant but I'm not a tranny like you. How could you think I was Puck?"

Rachel laughed nervously, "I'm sorry, Quinn. I was expecting to see Noah again since I'd already seen everyone else in Glee."

"You hadn't seen me."

"Well, no, but I assumed…"

"Well you assumed wrong, man-hands," Quinn snapped, grabbing Rachel's elbow again and leading her to their shared sixth period class. "I got saddled with you for the rest of the day," Quinn continued._ Lie_, she shouted to herself in her mind. So she did. "It was as close as I could come to not having to do it at all. And I couldn't deal with you in the morning, anyway. I already have enough morning sickness as it is."

"Quinn," Rachel said in a small voice, "I get it. I didn't ask you to do this, and I'm sorry that you got 'saddled'", she actually did air quotes, "with looking after me. At least you're honest about it."

Quinn slowed her pace, "What do you mean, 'honest about it'?"

Rachel shrugged, not looking at Quinn, "Everyone else seemed hurt every time I got confused about why they were doing this. They all claimed that they cared about me and they were just showing it. At least you were honest with me. It's refreshing. I know you don't care about me, but you're only doing this because you have to, or you feel bad. I assume that's everyone else's position on it, as well. You just sort of clarified that ongoing theory for me, so thank you."

Quinn's stomach raged with fury as her grip on Rachel's elbow tightened. She stole a glance at the girl's battered face and her anger only grew. "You're wrong," she said simply.

Rachel raised an eyebrow at her as they passed through the door to the Spanish room, "I don't think so, Quinn. Don't worry, I won't tell them that you blew their secret. I just wish I knew whose big idea this was, and why they did it." Rachel shrugged again and made her way to her seat.

Quinn sighed and her knuckles went white from the death grip hold she had on her backpack straps. She mumbled under her breath, "Yeah, I wish I knew why I did this too." She steeled her shoulders and put on her best determined face as she made her way up to Mr. Schuester's desk. He raised his head and cheerily smiled at her, "Quinn! Have you seen Finn? I haven't seen him all day."

Quinn raised an eyebrow, suddenly furious at her good-natured teacher, "Mr. Schue, do me a favor and look at Rachel's face." Will's face scrunched up in confusion, but he turned and looked at Rachel, gasping when he saw her. Quinn continued, "That happened yesterday when we got back from sectionals. It was an accident, but it still happened. That's why Finn isn't here."

Mr. Schue's eyebrows shot up and his mouth opened to speak, but Quinn softly cut him off, "Glee's going to suck today, Mr. S. We've all banned together to take care of her, but she isn't okay. I would appreciate it if you didn't mention it to her, or bring up Finn for that matter. It might cause a riot anyway."

She didn't wait for a reply as she made her way back to her desk. Rachel threw a curious look her way but Quinn ignored it. _Don't look at me like that, RuPaul. You don't need to know what we talked about._

* * *

><p>"Kurt brought me pastries last night."<p>

Quinn looked up from fidgeting with her hands on her lap. She and Rachel had been sitting in the music room in silence for five minutes, waiting for the rest of Glee to get there now that school was over.

"He also brought over makeup because he said that he was going to try to fix my face in hopes that I wouldn't cry as much." Quinn's right eye twitched in anger, but if you asked her about it later she'd swear it was just her allergic reaction to Rachel's voice. Rachel continued, "I was just surprised to see him there, you know? He even brought me a Jewish pastry and cookies. Who knew Kurt knew anything about Jewish traditions? Or… cared."

Quinn cut Rachel off, "Who knew you could still talk so much with a swollen face?"

Rachel's face fell, and there was a time when Quinn would've laughed at the irony that Rachel's mouth was swollen in the curve of a smile. Instead, she just felt sick to her stomach, so she looked away._ Damn morning sickness_, she thought to herself, even though her morning sickness had stopped weeks ago.

"I was just wondering if you knew anything about it."

"Why would I know why Kurt brought you Jewish pastries? Maybe he likes you."

"Quinn, he's gay."

"And you're stubbles."

Rachel sighed and Quinn smirked, a self-satisfactory smile that stemmed from being in control of something again, even if it was putting Rachel down. Even if that did make her sick to her stomach now, for some unknown and stupid reason.

"Where are you staying now?" Quinn narrowed her eyes in confusion, so thrown off by the sudden subject change that she answered easily.

"Brittany's house, why?" Rachel just shrugged, so Quinn continued, "I couldn't stay with Puck."

Rachel nodded, and Quinn was glad when Rachel didn't ask why. A minute passed by before Brittany and Santana came strolling into the practice room, sporting a grin and a scowl, respectively.

"Rachel! Does it hurt? It looks worse than it did at lunch."

Rachel quirked an eyebrow at Brittany but chose to ignore the remark because the girl's compassion made up for her severely lacking dexterity. "It hurts, yes."

"Does it hurt your heart, too?"

"Brittany," Santana snapped, but Rachel shook away Santana's anger.

"It's fine. Yes, B, it hurts my heart more than my face."

"Because you love him?" Brittany questioned, very quietly, almost as if it was a comment more than a question.

Rachel nodded curtly, "Yes."

"Are you retarded?" Quinn yelled, pushing away from the chair she was sitting on and facing Rachel, "I mean, really, did he do brain damage? Are you a retard now?"

Brittany shrunk into Santana and whispered, "Quinn, that's a bad word."

Quinn didn't take her resentful eyes off of Rachel when she lashed out at Brittany, "Just because your damn little friend is doesn't mean-" The end of that sentence left Quinn's lips in a rushed gasp as she found herself sandwiched between a wall (_when did that wall even get there?_) and one pissed off Santana.

Quinn didn't even try to struggle; she knew she'd flown off the deep end when Rachel had said she loved Finn. Santana snarled, "I don't care how fat and pregnant and hormonal you are Quinn Fabray, I would just as soon pop you if I didn't think it would upset Brittany anymore than you already have. You yell at Brittany, you deal with me." Quinn nodded mutely, one arm wrapped around her stomach.

A quiet voice broke the girls' 'death by glares' moment, "Santana, the baby."

Santana took in a breath and let go of Quinn, backing away, she threw one last pointed look at the blond before they both turned to see Brittany with an arm around Rachel. Rachel, who had been the one to speak up, continued, "Quinn has a point, anyway. And if she had kept her inappropriate and unjustified, overzealous anger inside," she spoke clearly, throwing a look at Quinn, "I could have finished. I suppose you could ironically say that Finn smacked the love out of me, because he did. I could never be with anyone who abused me in any way." Quinn winced but had no idea why. "But he was - is," she painfully corrected herself, remembering her conversation with Quinn earlier, "my only true friend. I love him to some extent, I have to."

Brittany opened her mouth to tell Rachel that she was her friend too, but the door swung open and the rest of Glee club filed in.

* * *

><p>Quinn was right: Glee sucked that day. Rachel refused - or couldn't - sing, no one knew which and no one pushed. Artie broke a gear off his wheelchair at some point, so most of the guys were busy fixing it. Mercedes and Kurt were in a heated discussion the whole time about which Lady Gaga song the group should perform. Santana and Brittany hovered over Rachel. Quinn spent the whole time being a raving bitch, and if anyone thought this was abnormal, they didn't question it. Finn never showed.<p>

* * *

><p>A week passed by before Finn showed again, looking as bad, if not worse, than Rachel.<p>

* * *

><p>Rachel stood in the girl's bathroom during lunch, putting the final changes on her makeup. She smiled at her reflection, "I think I completed my slushy remedy procedure in record time." She began putting her blow dryer back in her backpack when the bathroom door opened.<p>

Rachel's head shot up as she fumbled for the rape whistle that she now carried in her skirt pocket.

"Chill, Berry," Santana mumbled from the doorway. Rachel eyed her warily from the mirror, but continued packing her stuff away nevertheless.

"If you're planning on hurling up what little lunch you ate, I would please ask you to wait for me to leave before doing so. I'm already sick enough as it is with being drenched by two slushies in one day."

Santana's lips curled into a look of disgust as she crossed her arms over her chest, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but there, "No, God ew, man-handled. I came to warn you that Finn's back."

Rachel's backpack slipped from the sink onto the floor, her blow dryer and makeup falling back out of it. Santana sighed and rolled her eyes, bending down to pick it all up. She straightened and shifted uncomfortably on her feet because she was standing far too close to Rachel. Rachel, on the other hand, seemed unfazed by this as she had her hand over her heart and was currently hyperventilating.

"Berry, Berry stop. Look, hey, breathe, okay? I don't care if you pass out, I'm not doing CPR on you, that's just gross and I don't want like, herpes."

This only seemed to fuel Rachel's panic attack though because tears started streaming down the singers face and Santana's chest heaved with anger towards the stupid idiot who did this to her. She didn't even like Rachel and she wanted to kill Finn.

That's when it all fell apart. Santana broke an important Cheerio rule by putting her hands on Rachel's shoulders, actually talking soothing words to the girl, like, "God, shut up you sound like a dying rodent," and, "no, look if you stop crying I'll let you hug Brittany tomorrow."

Rachel had almost calmed down when a thundering, "God DAMNIT get off of me, I'm going to see her!" broke through the bathroom walls. Rachel grabbed onto the back of Santana's Cheerios jacket as the bathroom door slammed open. Finn's body filled up the entire space of the doorway. Santana tensed and took a step backwards, closer to Rachel, for protection. Rachel, being short, stared wide-eyed at Finn over Santana's shoulder, keeping her death grip on the Cheerio's jacket. There were muffled yells coming from behind Finn but no one in the bathroom could really make out what they were saying. That is, until Finn lurched forward into the wall as Quinn stepped into the bathroom, chest heaving and fists clenched.

It was as if the girl's bathroom door was a door to the Twilight Zone. With Rachel holding onto the back of Santana, Santana protecting Rachel, Finn in the girl's bathroom and Quinn with some sort of super-pregnant woman strength. Quinn's eyes widened as she stared at Santana and Rachel.

"Rachel, I don't want to scare you off, but everyone has been keeping me from seeing you all day and I-I finally got away from the worst of it," Finn stammered, clearly out of breath from whatever Quinn had put him through in the hall.

"You shit head brute, you'd scare anyone by barging into the girl's bathroom like this. You better leave before I kick you in the-"

"Santana, it's okay."

Finn piped up, "Yeah Santana, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to Rachel."

Santana growled, "No, you're not."

"I'm talking to her right now, see, hi Rachel."

"Hi, Finn."

"Rachel!" Santana and Quinn shouted simultaneously. Quinn finally pried her eyes off Rachel's hand gripping Santana's jacket and brought them up to the back of Finn's head, "Leave, now. We're not leaving you alone with her."

Finn whirled on Quinn, "Since when do you care about her?" He turned to Santana, "Since when do either of you care about her? It was an accident! And yeah I hit her, but what you two have purposely done to her emotionally has been far worse than what I accidentally did to her physically."

Santana crossed her arms over her chest, "What, did you spend your pansy week in hiding cramming a dictionary up your ass?"

Finn dropped his hands to his sides, Rachel winced, he half shrugged, "I've done a lot of thinking."

Santana shrugged, "I'm not letting you near her. For all you know, she isn't even in this bathroom right now."

"She's standing right behind you."

"You can't see her."

"Look I know she's short but-"

"Finn," Quinn calmly spoke, "you're clearly not going to get anywhere. You might as well leave."

Finn glared daggers at Quinn, then at Santana, and then proceeded to punch the wall and storm out of the bathroom.

The three girls waited until they couldn't hear Finn's loud footsteps anymore before moving. Rachel reluctantly released Santana's jacket and smoothed out the crease. Santana shuddered and stepped away from Rachel, her frown apparent in her brown eyes and her nose scrunched in disgust, "Don't touch me again, Berry."

Rachel smiled without showing her teeth, "Thank you. For - you know - protecting me."

Quinn stood rooted in the same spot, her glass eyes clouded with fury as she watched the exchange. Santana bent over, picked up Rachel's backpack, and literally threw it at her. Rachel caught it with a grimace as Santana shrugged, "Brittany told me to watch out for you."

Rachel softly nodded, "She's lucky, you know." Santana's eyebrows raised and Rachel fumbled to finish her thought, "I mean, to always have protection like you. That must be why no one is ever mean to her." Santana looked at Rachel with exaggerated disgust and a poorly hidden smile before walking away.

She stopped as she reached Quinn's side, facing the door while Quinn faced Rachel, and said, "You might want to do your job a little better, Preggo."

Quinn turned her head slightly towards Santana and hissed, "Isn't Brittany waiting for you in your bed or something?"

Santana briefly considered performing an illegal abortion on Quinn, but then thought better of it before snickering and whispering, "You're just jealous that she was latched on to me and not you."

As soon as Santana was gone, Quinn eyed Rachel. _Why does she look like she expects me to say something? She looks so vulnerable_, Quinn's breath caught in her throat as she mentally chided herself, _don't make it worse right now. Whatever you do, don't make it worse_.

"You're lucky Santana was in here."

"You tried to stop him from coming in here, so it wasn't all Santana."

"Clearly I did a great job of that."

Rachel shrugged, "It's the little things that count."

"I'm not even going to question that. You just better watch out for Finn, we can't keep holding him off from you."

"Then don't."

"You can't handle him."

"Why do you care?"

"I don't."

Rachel put her hands on her hips, "Quinn it isn't healthy to repress human emotions, even if they are ones of caring. You know, I don't think that you really hate me. In fact-"

"I do hate you."

"No, you don't."

Quinn hissed, "This is pointless and now we're going to be late for class. Clean up your face so we can go."

Rachel glared at Quinn, "I can get to class just fine on my own, Quinn. You may feel free to leave and go to whatever class you have."

"It's my turn to shadow you."

"I'd rather you just left."

"I'd rather you didn't use stupid words like 'rather'."

"I wish you didn't make fun of me for everything. I'm in a fragile emotional state."

"I haven't even made fun of your balloon face yet, you'd think that blimp would've deflated some by now, it's been a week."

"Classy, Quinn, classy. Do you spend most of your time looking through thesauruses for insults?"

"You wish I wasted that much time on you, I do have a life you know. Wait, no, you wouldn't know."

"You should have told Kurt that blueberry strudels weren't as good as raspberry ones."

"I didn't get into specifics with him, it took me long enough to Google the-" Quinn froze, sheer horror coating her face.

Rachel turned away from the mirror and gave a half smile and a nod, walking past Quinn and out of the bathroom. "We'll talk later, Quinn."

Quinn stood in the doorway, mouth still open in shock. _Son of a bitch_. When Rachel's words caught up with her a moment later however, Quinn's head snapped up as she sped out of the bathroom, "Wait, we will not talk later!" But the only reaction she got was from a scared freshman who was late for class. Quinn glared at him and he ran off. She stamped her foot in frustration and cursed the now empty hallway. _Damn her and her speed walking_.


	4. 4

"Who in the hell is Jesse St. James?"

Rachel took in a deep breath and finished shoveling her books into her locker. Closing it and calmly facing Santana, Rachel smiled, "Santana. Come to walk me to Glee practice?" Santana scoffed and Rachel looked behind the taller girl, "Where's Brittany?"

"She's at oboe practice in the band room."

A beat of silence between them before, "She plays the oboe…?" Rachel asked slowly.

"No, she doesn't even own one. Don't tell her that though, you'll make her cry. Back to my question."

Rachel took a breath and pulled her backpack close, eyeing the emptying halls as the stragglers from the final bell ringing finally made their way out of the school. "Jesse St. James," she started slowly, "is the lead singer of Vocal Adrenaline. Andmyboyfriend." She rushed out that last part so quickly that Santana almost didn't hear it. Except that she did.

Not by any means were Santana and Rachel Berry friends, but ever since Santana took it upon herself to protect Rachel from Finn, (mostly because she loved the way Brittany looked at her for doing it) she was at a tolerant level with the diva. Except for right now. She backed the shorter girl up against the lockers in one fluid motion and ground out, "You've got to be shitting me, Berry. Aren't they like, our main competition?"

Rachel's eyebrows shot up in distress as she desperately blurted out, "No! Santana it's not like that, he's not like that. This is different. It's so Romeo and Juliet-esque and everyone is just so mad about it. So I just told everyone that we broke up, mainly because Finn was so enraged…"

Santana shook her head but didn't back away from Rachel, "Are you just doing this because he's not Finn and you need some sick sort of comfort in knowing that you like, can be loved and that you're not some statistical girl that gets beaten and is too broken to love?"

Rachel's mouth hung open in anger as she bit out, "You have no right to talk to me like that Santana Lopez. I found love and it's real. And I don't need you or anyone-"

"Does he know about what happened with Finn?"

"Well, no… but-"

"Rachel, it was a month ago. That's not a long time, and now you're going after some Jesse person? You're acting more pathetic than I thought you were."

Rachel bit her lip and fought back tears but Santana's eyes didn't soften, "Look, I don't want to be your friend. And this isn't me caring about you. I do care about Glee though," she says through a gag, "And I'm not going to just sit back and let you ruin it because you're heartbroken."

"Too late."

"Too late, what?"

"You're already my friend, Santana. Even if I'm not yours." This time, Santana's eyes actually softened and she took a step back from Rachel. She gruffly pulled her Cheerio varsity jacket closer around herself as she sighed.

"Hypothetically speaking, if we were friends, I suppose it would be the friendly thing for me to do to tell you… Rachel, he's playing you."

"But what if she isn't?" she empathetically asked.

"Who isn't doing what?" Brittany's voice rang through the halls as she and Quinn came bounding towards them. Santana's face lit up when she saw Brittany's and Quinn's dropped when she saw Rachel. Rachel sighed; _guess that's the end of that conversation_. Brittany raced up and hugged Santana while Quinn stopped just short of the trio.

"I did so well in obo practice!" Brittany practically shouted at Santana. Rachel gave a snort in laughter but quickly muffled it when she earned a glare from Santana and Quinn.

Raising her hands up in defeat, Rachel rolled her eyes and shrugged, "I'll just see you guys in Glee then." Santana glared urgently at Quinn over Brittany's shoulder and Quinn glared back, shaking her head furiously, mouthing "No".

Ten seconds later, Quinn caught up to Rachel in the hall. "Hey, uhm, I didn't want to be stuck back there with those two. Talk about awkward."

Rachel had a confused look while slowing down to match Quinn's pace, "And you pretending to be friendly to me isn't awkward?"

Quinn scrunched her face up in disgust, "God, man-handled, excuse me for trying to be nice."

Rachel rolled her head on her shoulders and sighed, "I'm sorry, Quinn. It's just - you're never nice. Not without some sort of motive. But forgive me, people change, right? And with your pregnancy and everything you have sort of changed, become a better person, I think. Which is good, I mean, since we're on the same team and all and team companionship is so very-"

Quinn jerked the door to the practice room open, _I've never been so glad to be somewhere in my entire life_.

* * *

><p>"Adam Lambert? Isn't this that gay dude?" Puck asked incredulously, holding the sheet music away from him as if he could catch the gay.<p>

Kurt rolled his eyes at the stud as he shoulder nudged Mercedes, winking. Mercedes gave a small smile back but cleared her throat, "Uh, Mr. Schue, not that I don't love this song, but since when do we do music like this?"

Will shrugged from the front of the classroom, "After you guys performed My Life Would Suck Without You for me, I realized that we should broaden our horizons to songs that you guys may actually like."

Rachel sat by herself in front of the Cheerios and Quinn, across the room from Finn who was sitting in front of Puck and the jock boys. Rachel eyed the paper in her hand as everyone waited for her to realize that she didn't have the solo. Or even a lead part, for that matter.

Mr. Schue eyed Rachel and cleared his throat, "Since, uhm, our two lead vocalists haven't been able to sing… at all, lately, I decided to give the two leads to Kurt and Mercedes for this one." Mercedes and Kurt raised their eyebrows sassily towards Rachel, expecting the blow up. When Rachel just smiled with her mouth closed towards them and nodded her head slowly, the room deflated and Kurt almost looked disappointed.

They all spent the next hour rehearsing Whadda Ya Want From Me? It was the first time in weeks that Rachel actually sang with her heart, and everyone sort of started trying again when they heard her. Everyone but Quinn, who was too focused on glaring at Santana, who in turn was focused on making sure Rachel was kept at a safe distance from Finn.

* * *

><p>After practice was over, Rachel meekly approached Santana as she packed hers and Brittany's bags. "San?"<p>

Santana stiffened, still hunched over her backpack, "I told you not to call me that, Berry."

Rachel, through self-esteem practices, was finally able to hold her head up high again, and so she did, "Fine. Lopez."

Santana slowly turned around, eyebrows up, a snarky reply on her tongue as she spotted Finn standing by the piano, backpack slung over his shoulder, waiting for Rachel. His eyebrows scrunched together as he silently pleaded for Santana to not keep Rachel away from him again. Santana snapped her mouth shut, "I prefer you just don't call me anything. What did you need?"

"A ride home."

Brittany bounded up to the couple as Santana was trying to figure out how to get out of the school with Rachel and not have anyone see. "S, are we giving Rachel a ride? It's cold outside…" Brittany pouted, Rachel gave that weird half smile that she'd been doing since she doesn't show her teeth anymore or something, and Finn was creeping in the back of the room. _It's enough to drive a person to acknowledge human emotions_, Santana thought with a scowl.

"Fine, sure. Just, walk next to Brittany, and don't make eye contact with anyone on our way out."

Rachel shifted her backpack to her other shoulder and subconsciously ran her finger down the scar under her eye, "Santana, I'm not a pariah."

Santana raised her eyebrow, but then Brittany took her hand and any rude comment left her as she storms towards the door in a huff, Brittany and Rachel in tow.

Finn watched them leave and let out a string of profanities. He moved to make his way out of the practice room, seeing as everyone else had left, when he spots her by the door. Holding her hands around her stomach almost unknowingly, Quinn stares him down. Finn threw her a few questioning looks but approached her anyway. "Quinn? You aren't going to yell at me are you because-"

"Who is Jesse?"

Finn's eyes squinted in confusion, "You mean, Jesse St. James?"

A perfect blond eyebrow cocks in judgment, _St. James? I'll have a field day with the insults for that one_. "Okay, Jesse St. James, who is he and what does he have to do with Rachel?"

Finn shrugged nonchalantly, because it really was nothing to worry about anymore, "He's the guy Rachel dated for like, two weeks but then they broke up because most of us in Glee pressured her to end it. He was just using her anyway," he finished with another shrug. Quinn's confused look urged him to continue, "No one told you about it…? Well, he's a senior and the lead singer of Vocal Adrenaline."

Quinn barely managed to keep her gasp in as her heart clenched in her chest, "She's aware that he's just using her, right?"

Finn focused on a spot on the wall for a second before "Well, that's what we all told her. That's why we had her break it-"

"They aren't broken up."

Silence. "What?"

Quinn rolled her eyes and pushed off from the wall, "Look, don't believe me, I don't care. I'm just pissed that no one told me sooner. I'm a part of this club too."

Finn, albeit still confused from Quinn's revelation, shook his head and managed "Why would anyone tell you? It's not like you care about anyone in Glee, not even Santana or Brittany anymore."

Quinn's glare shot daggers through Finn as she stormed out of the room, tossing a "You're wrong," over her shoulder as Finn was finally left alone.

* * *

><p>Quinn walked into Brittany's room without knocking, her gaze on her Spanish book, flipping through pages as she voiced the question, "Hey guys, have you done this Spanish homework yet? I can't remember what page Schue told us to do."<p>

"Page thirty four."

"Oh okay, thanks Rachel," Quinn said, turning to leave. Then stopping. Slowly turning around, Quinn's eyebrows scrunched together as she saw Rachel sitting on Brittany's bed as Brittany labored away with her makeup kit. "What is she painting on your face, Berry?"

Santana, sitting in the chair in front of Brittany's desk with her arms folded and a scowl on her face, mumbled, "She's trying to show Rachel how to cover the scar under her eye. Somehow they talked me into bringing travesty here instead of to her own house."

Rachel's hesitant gaze flickered to Santana as she dropped her head. Brittany giggled and lifted her face up, "Ignore S, Rach, she's just cranky 'cause we can't make out." This did nothing to help the blush spreading across Rachel's face, so Quinn decided to step in. Literally.

She approached the two girls on the bed and bent down, coming within a foot of Rachel's face as she inspected the damage. Brittany gleamed up at her, "You can't see it, huh Q?"

Quinn raised an eyebrow but smiled slightly, "Nope, it's almost non-existent. Now if you could do something with the rest of her face, I'd call you the next Picasso."

Rachel rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Don't you have Spanish homework to do?"

"Aren't you late for your sex change?"

"Remember how this ended last time?"

All eyes on the room were now on Quinn, and Quinn seethed when she saw Rachel smirk, _how does that thing even know how to smirk? What a jackass_. Quinn straightened up and rolled her eyes, "Low blow, Berry. You'd know all about those though, I'd assume."

Brittany was abruptly pulled off the bed by Santana and pulled towards the bedroom door, "You two perras locas can have this room to be idiots in; I'm taking Brit into the guest room." The door slammed behind them and Rachel's brows furrowed. Quinn sighed.

"What's wrong?"

Rachel shrugged, picking up the mirror that Brittany had left on her bed, "She didn't finish."

Quinn shrugged and sat in the now vacant chair, "It was a lost cause anyway. I have a question."

Rachel didn't answer, but she stared at Quinn evenly while sitting Indian-style on the bed and putting down the mirror.

"Why are you dating Jesse? I mean, I know the club has told you all about how he's using you and I know you know that's true but-"

"It's not true."

"Yeah, it is. Why would anyone-"

"Date me?"

Quinn paused, _was that what I wanted to say_? Her hazel eyes pierced Rachel evenly, no expression on her face before she shrugged, "If you say so."

Rachel huffed, "I'm not a leper Quinn, and some people actually find me enjoyable to be around." Quinn half laughed at that but let Rachel continue. "They do. And you'd know that if you weren't so completely fixated on what little reputation you have left and the irrational hatred that you're harboring for me. One would think now that I'm not after Finn anymore that this stupid fight between us would be completely irrelevant now."

Quinn glared at Rachel, "My reputation is still intact. And even if I had absolutely nothing left, I still wouldn't stop hating you."

Rachel nodded slowly, her gaze dropped to her fidgeting hands in her lap, and Quinn cringed because _Oh God, she's crying. I made her cry_. "Rachel…"

Rachel shook her head, "You know, I need to go anyway. I should go. I'm not even welcome here anyway. I shouldn't have come." She jumped up and grabbed her backpack, heading for the door before-

"Damnet Rachel, do you have to storm out of everything?" The voice was too close and Rachel whirled around to find Quinn standing before her, excessively far into her personal space. Rachel caught her breath and wiped a tear away.

"I storm out to avoid any more insults, Quinn."

"Coward."

That was it, the last straw. Rachel slammed her backpack onto the floor at her feet and made herself as tall as she possibly could compared to Quinn. "What am I, Quinn? Besides the object of your torture, the school pariah, the target for every damn hate crime in this loser town! I know I'm nothing, I know that I'm absolutely nothing to anyone in this town except for my fathers, and Jesse. This amazing boy who might actually see me and who kisses me and makes me feel like I'm not something that can just be thrown around and beaten. He sings with me and he appreciates my constructive criticism, my overwhelming drive for my dreams, and my voice. So I dove head first into his love and that may be naïve and inept but I just don't care. I never expected to find love, Quinn. And some nights? Some nights the insults and the torture get to be too much, so I have to storm out. I have to leave. Some nights I'm so afraid that I've been so reduced to nothing that I need to run away to find myself again. So if that makes me a coward Quinn Fabray, why don't you take a good look in the mirror and see what doing that to me makes you?" Rachel took one huge breath, closed her eyes and picked up her backpack with shaking hands. She didn't turn to see if Quinn was pissed or angry, she didn't care.

The door opened as she reached for the handle and Rachel was face-to-face with one pissed off Santana. Santana stared over Rachel's head at Quinn, her expression unreadable. "S-Santana?"

"Brittany has the car started, and it's snowing I think, so take this so you don't freeze. I don't want to hear you whining," Santana snapped, handing Rachel her Cheerio jacket.

Rachel eyed it, "I don't understand…"

Rolling her eyes, Santana grabbed Rachel's backpack and tossed the jacket onto Rachel, "Put. It. On." She put it on. "You look like a midget in it. Your arms are too short. All right, let's get to the car; I don't want to make Brittany wait." With that, Rachel followed Santana to the car without a backward glance at Quinn._ Me, Rachel Berry, wearing Santana Lopez's Cheerio jacket while she carries my backpack… I wonder if someone drugged me…_

She made it home in one piece, still wearing Santana's jacket, as she sat in her computer chair while Googling "drug tests to do at home".

* * *

><p>The next day, Jesse St. James joined McKinley High. And New Directions.<p>

"What the hell? It seems like now everybody's doing things just to hurt my feelings!" Rachel glanced at Finn, but her confusion was too overwhelming right then to focus on Finn's feelings.

"I thought you all would take this news a little better, I'm a star." Quinn gagged. Santana seethed. "You can learn from me."

Brittany glanced at Santana with wide eyes, and Santana, being the hbic of this pansy ass group..._ I better step in_. "He's a spy Mr. Schue, I would know."

Quinn kept her eyes, peripherals only, on Rachel;_ I wouldn't want to be caught dead staring/caring about man-hands_._ Even if she won't talk to me now, or even look at me_… Rachel's eyebrows were bunched together, still in confusion, as she eyed Jesse warily.

_I understand my fellow teammates anger, of course it's completely justified. But am I the only one who's confused_?

"Brittany."

"Mr. Schue, is he your son?" Rachel didn't take her eyes off Jesse, but she could just picture Brittany's genuine concern over this issue. _Apparently, I'm not the only confused one here._

"I don't understand why you're doing this," Rachel finally asked Jesse, puzzlement and wary playing across her face so thoroughly that it actually hurt Quinn and Rachel's words from the other night came back to her like a slap in the face.

"Because when you love something you gotta go for it. You would never be with me completely if I were on the opposing team." Quinn openly looked at Rachel now, up and down, a small smile on her face because_ if she's buying this I'll personally slap her myself. She's too smart to buy this guy's bullshit._ "And I care about you more than winning another national title. So I left Vocal Adrenaline. For you." Quinn's stare would've burned Jesse St. James to hell and back if he'd been able to pry his eyes off Rachel.

Rachel's expression was torn somewhere between awestruck and disbelief. Quinn's eyes dropped to the side. Santana's chest tightened and not even Brittany's hand in hers could calm her anger. It was in this moment that Quinn realized, no matter what the cost,_ I'm not letting this priss ruin this club. Or Rachel. God, these pregnancy hormones are going to ruin me._

* * *

><p>When everyone gathered to rehearse Like A Prayer in the auditorium, Quinn sat by herself backstage with a look that radiated warning signals. Kurt, however, didn't care. "What's wrong with you? Baby hormones got you pissy again?"<p>

Quinn ripped open the bag of Doritos she had on her lap and glared at Kurt, "Maybe I just hate the world right now Kurt, ever think about that?"

Kurt cocked a perfect eyebrow, "Well miss thang, it seems I'm not the only one whose mood was shot to hell when Mr. St. James joined the ranks. Although, I can't help but wonder what your reasons would be, since I'm assuming they aren't the same as Mercedes' and mine."

Quinn glared daggers at Kurt, "I think you better watch yourself, Hummel."

Kurt openly laughed at Quinn, "Why would I do that, when it's so much more fun to watch you, watching them, Quinn Fabray." With that, Kurt turned and strode off to gossip about who knows what with Mercedes. _What the hell does he know anyway? So I people watch, and it's not a crime. He just always talks in code, like I'm supposed to understand code! I don't speak gay diva boy._ Her thoughts were broken off, however, as Jesse and Rachel strode by hand-in-hand and Mr. Schue called "From the top!"

Their performance brought tears to Quinn's eyes for reasons that not even she could blame on the baby hormones.


	5. 5

"You wouldn't know."

"Hm?"

"From looking at her, you wouldn't know."

"That she's a girl or, what Quinn?"

Quinn scoffed and shook her head, "You wouldn't know that she's two seconds away from shooting up the school and three seconds away from hurling herself off of a cliff."

Santana took a swig of her [lunch] water bottle and shrugged, "I don't see why you've taken such an interest in Berry."

Quinn tore her gaze away from where Rachel and Jesse were sitting together enjoying lunch and raised her eyebrow, "Me? I'm not the one who gave her my Cheerio's jacket after hopping off of my white horse to save her."

Santana glared daggers at Quinn before scanning the cafeteria for Brittany. Not seeing her, Santana's eyebrows etched a deeper frown onto her face as she mumbled, "Yeah, I need to knock that shit off…" She trailed off, sighing, "People are going to think we're dating now or something. My reputation is already tarnished enough as it is by sitting with you again."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "I never said you had to. Where is Brittany, by the way?" Quinn asked, dragging her straw around her lunch tray.

"I have no freaking idea. I've been too busy trying to keep tabs on Empire State building."

"Why don't you just let him talk to her? It's not like he's going to hit her again, and even if he loses his cool, she has Jessie now," Quinn said with a poorly disguised half snarl.

Santana set down her water bottle and followed Quinn's gaze to Rachel. "Why are you so like, indifferent to this situation now? God, I swear you are like the biggest damn bipolar teenager in this school. Get it? Biggest, Preggo," Santana chuckled.

Quinn ignored her. "I cared about her when no one else seemed to, I helped her as best as I could. It's clear that she's moved on from the whole ordeal, so she and I no longer need to affiliate."

Santana smirked, "And she handed you your ass the other day in Brit's house."

"And she handed me my ass the other day, yeah," Quinn reiterated calmly, "I think the whole thing has just blown over. It's done."

Santana glared at Rachel before turning back to Quinn, "Have you noticed that she hasn't smiled with her teeth in like, a month?"

Quinn nodded, "Yeah, so what?"

A smug look. "I was just seeing if you noticed."

"What the hell are you implying, Lopez?"

Santana rolled her eyes, "Oh calm your tits, I'm not interested enough in you to care about who you have the hots for or who you don't."

Quinn's chest heaved in rage as she -somehow, completely keeping her composure - slammed her straw, and the palm of her hand, onto the cafeteria table. She was always so good at keeping her composure in public; she was sure as hell not about to let Santana crack that. Santana merely raised an eyebrow at the now, incredibly flustered, blonde.

"I so knew it!" Santana yelled, pointing a finger at Quinn, "I so knew it. Oh my God you have the hots for Rachel fucking Berry!"

"Shut the hell up!" Quinn hissed, fury and panic glazing her eyes as she scanned the cafeteria. Her eyes darted to Rachel, who was now looking over at Quinn and Santana with raised eyebrows. Quinn made sure that Rachel saw her glare before turning back to a smug looking Santana, "Keep your mouth shut. I do not have the hots for beat down. I stepped up in order to make everyone else step up, okay? That's what we do in glee. We pull for each other in glee and only when we need to. Then we forget it ever happened. But that doesn't mean that I like Rachel, not by a long shot."

Santana's face stayed straight, "So, you wouldn't mind if I hooked up with her?"

Quinn had been in the process of standing up and leaving Santana high and dry at the table. She stopped. "Excuse me?" she asked, her back still to Santana.

Santana, of course, had ulterior motives, "What? You are the one who calls me home wrecker. Brittany wouldn't care, she wouldn't even have to know. Would it bug you?"

Quinn faced Santana but still stood, "And what about Jesse?"

Santana smirked, for the upteenth time, "Jesse is irrelevant. There's a reason man-hands still has my jacket, you know."

Quinn shot a gaze back over to where Rachel was sitting with Jesse. Rachel still had her eyes on Quinn with a worried expression playing across her features. _Why should I care? She offered me an olive branch like, twice. I didn't take it. I don't want her friendship. I only stepped up because she needed help, and… damn, why does she look at me like that?_ Quinn wondered, keeping Rachel's gaze. Jesse was talking animatedly to Rachel, complete with hand gestures and Oh God, male hair flips. Rachel was nodding in all of the right places but her eyes remained on Quinn's from across the lunchroom.

"Quinn, I know I'm a bitch 125% of the time," Santana said seriously, standing up across the table from Quinn (who, much to Quinn's embarrassment, realized she was still standing), "so I'm going to say this once, and if you miss it then tough shit, I'll never say it again and I'll poison your bacon if you tell anyone I said this." Quinn reluctantly tore her gaze from Rachel's eyes - pissed at herself for actually keeping eye contact with the brunette for so long - and scanned a different set of brown eyes. "Everyone in this damn school thinks that something is going on between me and Brittany. It's not true." Quinn's eyebrow shot up. "It's not, okay? We hooked up, we hooked up a few times but we… look, she's Brittany, you know? She doesn't get… well she doesn't get "serious" because she likes making out with everyone. And I don't have it in me to tell her, well… ask her, to not do that."

Santana's voice lowered even more and Quinn was grateful that she had laid her hands on the table between them and leaned towards the blonde as she continued. "I wish I could ask her to stop. I wish the fucking rumors were true. Yeah, Brittany and me have something special or whatever. But it's all bullshit because she doesn't get it. Hooking up isn't fucking good enough when it comes to her. I just don't have the guts to do anything about it yet, because like, I'm the head bitch now and I'm not giving that up yet. You're not the head bitch anymore, though. And to be honest, I never thought you and Puck were good together. So what in the hell do you have to lose? Stop living in your dumb ass world of denial. Berry isn't as grotesque as I thought she was. I mean, she's up there with those croc shoes and like, sweater vests on the cringe worthy scale. But you've shown more compassion to her than I've ever seen you show to anyone else. And maybe Finn slapped the 'annoying' out of her. All I know is that she looks at you like a friggan puppy. If you won't do something about it, I will," Santana finished.

Quinn's hazel eyes were wide as she bit her lip. Santana swept her glare around the cafeteria before straightening up and rolling her eyes, "Stop looking so shocked. I have a heart, you know."

Quinn shook her head and breathed out, "Honestly, I didn't know. I…" She trailed off and glanced back at Rachel, who was doing a horrible job of avoiding Quinn's eyes while chewing on a cookie. "I'm not grossed out by her anymore. When she yelled at me the other day… she was right. I'm worse than a coward is. I haven't let myself feel anything towards her, except when I'm with her, and then things just leak out. It's disgusting. I'm not gay, you know," Quinn whispered vehemently to Santana. But when she looked back, Santana wasn't there. Quinn glared at the spot where her friend had just been and wondered_ how long have I been standing here talking to myself?_ She shook her head and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She cast one more look to Rachel, who was staring hard at something that Jesse was quickly scribbling into some notebook. "I'm not gay," she whispered again before walking out of the cafeteria.

* * *

><p>Rachel shut her locker and jumped, expecting to see Jesse there - seeing as how that's usually where he popped up - but instead, saw Quinn. "Quinn… Hi, can I help you with something?"<p>

Quinn stared hard at Rachel and into Rachel's eyes for a few moments before she opened her mouth. Then closed it. She rolled her eyes, more out of frustration with herself than the confused girl standing inches away. "Are you okay?"

Rachel squinted in confusion, "I'm feeling rather adequate today Quinn. How are you…? Did you need my assistance with something?"

Quinn took a breath in; _do not insult her out of defense. Do not be an idiot. Just do this._ "I just wanted to talk to you. You know, see how you were holding up. It wasn't that long ago that…well," she gestured to Rachel's face, "Finn knocked you down a few pegs."

Rachel winced when Quinn's hand got too close to her face, "I'm all right, Quinn. It was merely a dimness in the light that is my life." Quinn rolled her eyes. "I was hoping to talk to you again, however…"

Quinn tilted her head a little, "Why? You don't think we're friends now, do you Berry?"

Rachel huffed and rolled her eyes and Quinn glared, "No, Quinn I do not think that we are friends. I did want to apologize for the other day though at Brittany's house. While I feel like I was right in what I said, I was wrong in how I delivered it. I shouldn't have gotten in your face like I did and I can assure you my voice was hoarse for the rest of the day because I yelled far too loudly. So I hope you can forgive me."

Quinn rolled her head on her neck and briefly glanced around the hall. It was after school, but you never knew who was lurking, like that creepy Jacob kid. "I don't forgive you." Rachel sighed, expecting a fight. "Only because you don't have a reason to apologize. You were right. Do you… do you remember what Finn said in the bathroom that one time? When he stormed in like an imbecile?"

Rachel shifted on her feet and thought for a second, "Oh, when he asked why you and Santana suddenly cared about me?"

Quinn nodded, leaning against the lockers and wrapping her hands around her stomach, "He said that, along with the stupid yet accurate comment about how we've hurt you just as much as he has. That's true. I'll admit I'm still a pretty big bitch now." Rachel nodded. "But I've gotten better. Having a little human in you sort of changes your perspective on life. Today Santana told me that she wasn't willing to take a risk for something she loves because she doesn't want to lose her title as head bitch of the school. That was me…" She trailed off. She met Rachel's eyes again and was surprised to see the shorter girl had all of her attention trained on Quinn. "I'm sorry," Quinn said, eyebrows raised and jaw clenched, "Finn was right. I'm sure every insult felt worse than a slap in the face and every slushy ten times worse. I don't like you; I don't want to be friends. But I'll admit, when you went down from Finn's hand, I felt it. I'll repeat," she said, taking a breath and nodding her head, "I don't like you. But I'm human, so I feel compassion. What you said to me in Brittany's room and what Finn said to me in the bathroom just, hurt. I'm tired of hurting people. Even you. Kind of."

Rachel watched Quinn's eyes the entire time; _she must be lying. This must be some trick._ It wasn't a trick though. Rachel felt oddly comforted by knowing that Quinn was just being level with her, making a point to amend her mistakes. Rachel nodded, seeing as how she was obviously the bigger person, she didn't hesitate to say "Forgiven. It doesn't mean I like you either, although I wouldn't mind having a friend in you. If you can manage an apology, I can certainly be a big enough person to manage to forgive you. Thank you for apologizing Quinn."

Quinn smiled, a real smile, "Well, glad that's settled. I'm just gonna go."

Rachel nodded, plastering one of her small, trademark, hurt smiles on her face, "Of course, wouldn't want anyone thinking we're friends, after all," she said, complimenting her fake smile with an even sadder fake laugh.

Quinn chuckled, "Yeah, exactly. Later, Berry." She turned and took five whole steps because five is an okay amount. _Five means I made an effort to leave but because I'm such an awesome person that I decided to be nice. Yeah, five is a good number._ She turned back to Rachel, "RuPaul."

Rachel looked up from stuffing her books in her bag, "Quinn?"

There were things Quinn Fabray wanted to know about Rachel. She wanted to hear about the incident with Finn. She wanted to know how Rachel felt now. She wanted to know what the hell was up with Jessie. She wanted to know why Rachel wouldn't smile with her teeth anymore. Though Quinn couldn't admit it to herself without coming up with clever excuses, she couldn't hold off on asking anymore. "I've been craving a bacon cheeseburger like, really bad. So I was going to sneak out of Brittany's tonight and go some place for dinner. Do you want to like, I don't know, meet me there? So we can hang out and maybe you could have something better than the take-out you apparently eat constantly." _Oh, God. What am I doing? This is horrible. This is awful. She's going to think I want to be friends instead of just wanting to get information out of her. I'm curious; I'm a curious girl. I'm learning about the world. I just want to ask questions. Why couldn't I have just asked here? Oh, God she's going to-_

"Sure, Quinn," Rachel said in a quiet voice.

"Really?"

"While I hope this isn't some elaborate prank you're planning to pull on me that will inevitably end in me sobbing on a street corner, I'm curious as to why you want to attend dinner with me. At the moment, my curiosity outweighs my fear. Besides, Jessie already had plans tonight and I don't really like being alone anymore, even though I usually am," she mumbled, more to herself than to Quinn. She shook herself out of her thoughts when she saw Quinn's raised eyebrows, "Moreover, yes Quinn. I'll hang out with you for dinner tonight. Where at?"

Quinn shrugged, "Some diner, somewhere. I don't know yet. Preferably some place that isn't crowded, seeing as how I don't want anyone to know I'm hanging with you."

"You make this offer so hard to turn down. I don't have a ride."

"Can't you take a bus?"

"Maybe this isn't a good idea."

"Fine. You are such a burden. I'll pick you up."

"You have your car?"

"Puck hotwired my car one night and got it back to me and Kurt's dad made a copy of the key."

"I don't know if I feel comfortable riding in a stolen car, with you no less."

"That's a yes, right?"

"I already said yes."

"You said your curiosity outweighed your fear."

"What time, Quinn?" Rachel sighed.

"Be ready by seven."

* * *

><p>Quinn paced Brittany's guest bedroom in a blue baby doll dress. Her flats slapped the floor over and over again, inciting an already pissed off Santana next door.<p>

"Are you trying to make the baby fall out or something? Why the hell are you pacing so much? You're confusing Brittany."

Quinn scowled at Santana, "I'm just nervous, okay? I did something really freaking dumb today and it's all your fault."

Santana leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed, "My fault?"

Quinn sat down on her temporary bed, "I confronted Rachel after school. I apologized for being such a bitch to her over the years. I told her I didn't want to be friends and that I didn't like her. Then I invited her out to dinner since I was going to sneak out anyway."

Santana's face stayed serious, "If you're lucky maybe she'll let you kiss her good night. If you get past second base, lemme know if she really is a guy or not."

"This is not funny! What the hell am I doing with my life? I only wanted to ask her questions, there's stuff I want to know. But I ended up asking her to dinner for God's sake! Do you know of any restaurants that are like, abandoned? I don't want to be seen with her."

"You're quite a catch, Preggo. You'll make a great date for her."

"This is not a date!" Quinn practically screamed, "This is your fault anyway! I wouldn't even be talking to her if it weren't for your lapse of judgment today in the cafeteria."

Santana pushed away from the doorframe and shot Quinn a disgusted look, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I sat with Brittany at lunch. Stop pacing or I'll talk Brittany into kicking you out." With that, Santana stormed out of the room, leaving a fuming Quinn.

"Bitch." She turned to her open laptop that was lying in her bed and pulled up Google. She typed in secluded cheap diners Lima, OH. Her brow furrowed at the words in the search bar. She stopped looking at the words and stared past the screen. Images of Rachel focusing completely on Quinn when she spoke flashed through her head. She thought about how they locked eyes in the cafeteria. She thought about how Jessie was ignoring her because he was too focused on himself and his hair. She thought about that scar under her eye "Maybe she deserves something a little better than crap food… Besides, the more comfortable she is, the easier she'll answer my questions."

She deleted her first search and typed nice affordable restaurants Lima, OH. _I'll just splurge a little with my money that Puck stole for me from my room_…

* * *

><p>The questions about the incident had been plaguing her since the day it happened. She would have never concerned herself with anything to do with man hands before. But everything was different now, and she couldn't deny that her curiosity as to what the hell was wrong with this girl had reached the point where she couldn't deny them anymore. She couldn't push them down and she couldn't deny that maybe, maybe that bathroom had been the gate to the Twilight Zone that one day. Maybe she did care if Rachel Berry lived or died.<p>

_Most importantly_, Quinn thought to herself, taking calming breaths as she sat in her car in the Berry's driveway,_ I need to figure out how she knew the streusel thing. And then I need to lie and make her think it was Brittany who did it_. Quinn arranged her questions for Rachel in her head and her plans for how to get the diva to spill her guts to Quinn. _Ultimately, I can figure out why she's dating Jesse St. Idiot. Once I know that, I can tell the glee club._

Yes! Quinn clapped her hands together in victory, _that's why I'm doing this. To get inside Rachel's head to see if Jesse is legit or not. Then I'll report back to the club. Perfect._ Quinn had her plan set by the time she saw Rachel's silhouette emerge from the house and run towards her car. She only knew it was Rachel because she had first thought it was a rogue, small shrub taking off into the night.

Rachel stopped at the passenger door and peered inside the car. After a minute, Quinn frustratingly gestured to open the door and so Rachel did. "Sorry Quinn, I was just making sure it was you and not a potential kidnapper since it is sort of dark-"

"Okay, well it's me. So get in."

Rachel hesitantly got in and pulled on her seatbelt. She didn't ask where they were going.

As they drove, Quinn glanced over at Rachel, "So, you're really just going to trust me on this?"

Rachel shrugged, "Why not? If your offer is sincere then I get to spend the night out with someone who was nice to me when I needed them to be. If not… then… well, what's the worst you could do to me that you haven't already done?"

Quinn smirked, "Well… I could list some things."

"Please don't. I'm already scared enough."

Quinn's face contorted into a dumbfounded expression, "Scared? Why did you get into the car if you're so scared?"

"I told you, what's the worst you could do? It's not like I have much left to lose."

"You have no sense of self-preservation."

"I suppose not."

There was silence before Quinn pulled into the parking lot of a fairly nice restaurant. "I've been here once," Rachel commented as Quinn parked the car, "for my thirteenth birthday we came here."

"Fascinating," Quinn mumbled as she gazed out the side window, maneuvering her car into a spot. She did file that thought away, however, for future references or, blackmail or something. She shut down the engine as Rachel pulled off her seatbelt. "Ready?"

Rachel smiled, "Sure. Let's go, I'm hungry."

As they walked to the door, Quinn scanned the parking lot. Rachel, walking beside the blonde but trying to keep her space, caught her and laughed hollowly, "I don't think anyone we know will be here."

Quinn's eyes snapped to Rachel, "Just making sure. I don't want anyone to-"

"Think that we're friends."

"Right."

"You're so adamant about not having anyone think we're friends, which is obviously because you're horrified by the idea of us being friends, but I just can't understand why you're hanging out with me."

Quinn shrugged, "I'm making an effort. I didn't have anything else to do and I figured maybe this could be part of the apology."

"I was wondering if I could pay for your dinner, Quinn."

Quinn's hand paused as it reached for the door to the restaurant, "Why? This isn't a date, you know."

Rachel's eyebrows shot up, "What? No, I didn't think it was a date, Quinn. I wanted to do it as a thank you, and because I know you aren't exactly rolling in money, what with the doctors bills and-"

"Yeah, I get it. I'm broke," Quinn snapped, "What the hell are you thanking me for though?"

Rachel squirmed in her jeans and picked at her argyle sweater, "For helping me after Finn hit me. I mean, everyone seems to forget that that was the same day I spilled the beans to Finn about the baby… and you turned around and helped me like you actually car-"

"I get it. You don't need to thank me for that, I just felt bad for you." Quinn froze, an alarm going off in her head shouted at her that _you just said the absolute worst thing ever, you idiot._

"Felt bad for me," Rachel whispered, "that's what I thought was going on when the entire glee club shadowed me for a week to make sure I was okay. You told me I was wrong when I said you weren't taking care of me because you felt bad for me. I knew I was right," she finished quietly.

Quinn was at a loss. She'd never been in this position with Rachel, or anyone before. She averted her eyes, turning her head left and right while fumbling with her purse strap. "Rachel… look, we did that because we cared about you. The glee club, that is. They all care about you. I didn't mean to say that, I don't think. I don't know, it hurt you right? This should be my specialty. I just don't know what-"

"I'm hungry. Can we just go in?"

Quinn breathed out, relief and fury - fury at herself and at Rachel for making her feel this way - and nodded, "Yeah, I really need that damn cheeseburger right about now."

Rachel held the door open for Quinn.


	6. 6

They were placed in a booth near the windows, and Rachel's stomach growled while the smell of 'fine dining' wafted through the air. She took her seat across from Quinn and glanced up at the low lighting, then at the precision folded swan napkin currently taking up residence on her plate. Rachel eyed Quinn from across the small booth as the blonde smiled at the waitress, mouthing thanks as she's handed their menus. Rachel silently took the menu and slowly traced her finger over the cursive words printed on the front. "Quinn?"

Quinn lifted her eyes from the menu and her eyebrows followed suit, "What?"

Rachel's eyes traced the lace window curtains behind Quinn's head, "Are you even going to be able to get a bacon cheeseburger here? I mean, I thought we were going to some dive place…" she trailed off, tensing at the awkward air floating between them.

Quinn scoffed,_ oh shit, can I_? "Well, yeah, of course I can. I mean that was my whole reason for going out to eat." Quinn shrugged her shoulders like_ duh_ and opened her menu, quickly scanning. "Aha, see," flashing the menu in front of Rachel's face, "bacon cheeseburger."

Rachel huffed and set down her menu, "But you didn't know that when we came here! Why did you bring me here, Quinn? Not even Jesse has taken me somewhere this nice for dinner."

"Maybe that should tell you something," Quinn snapped. She languidly dragged her eyes back to Rachel's curious ones and sighed. "I don't know. I honestly can't tell you what possessed me long enough to ask you to hang out with me. I was planning on going to some crap place, but I figured you deserved something nicer. I don't know why I thought that either.

"All I know is that I'm curious. I have questions and I wanted them answered. I was going to play this off as me being a spy for the glee club to get information on Jesse but they aren't in on it so I didn't think it would work," Quinn finished, finally managing to snap her mouth shut. She chanced a glance at Rachel, whose mouth was set in a grim line. "This is the second time I've ended up opening up to you without being able to explain why. Do you like, secretly drug me or something?"

This caused Rachel to show a small smile, in turn making Quinn smile. Then shake her head in disbelief and glare. Rachel glanced up at Quinn, noticing her glare. "I'm an easy person to talk to, believe it or not."

Quinn shrugged, "I wouldn't know. Most people can't get a word in edge wise around you."

"You always manage to," Rachel shot back. Quinn didn't get a chance to say anything in return, and Rachel was extra nice to the waitress because of this.

* * *

><p>Setting down her fork next to her still-full plate, Rachel watched Quinn devour her burger. "Was it what you wanted?"<p>

Quinn shot her a look over the cheeseburger and Rachel chuckled, "You said you've been craving a bacon cheeseburger, so did it satisfy your craving?"

Quinn rolled her eyes but smiled, "It did yeah, but I could go for another."

Rachel sat up a little straighter, "Really? That's wonderful to hear, because I ordered you another one while you were in the restroom," she held up her hand to silence Quinn's protests, "I was planning on paying for it. Sort of a thank you for taking me out, since you won't let me pay for your first one."

Quinn stared at Rachel, shock evident on her face, "Even after I told you I didn't know why I wanted you here in the first place?"

Rachel had the decency to blush as she picked her fork back up. "More like… after telling me you switched restaurants for me. Leading us to the point of this rendezvous, I was just waiting to finish my dinner before I spoke." Quinn threw a pointed look at Rachel's full plate of ravioli. Rachel ignored it. "You may have five questions."

Quinn took a drink of her Coke, "Really?"

Rachel bit her lip and nodded. "Yes. I'm pleased with the fact that you were so honest with me, even if you can't grasp why. And unlike Santana and Mercedes, you don't corner me in bathrooms and demand I tell you why I'm dating Jesse and why I'm not seeing a therapist daily, or something of that ridiculous notion."

Quinn's face grows dark, "Santana corners you in bathrooms?"

"Quinn, I'm sure you want this to end as quickly as possible, so feel free to ask your five questions," Rachel said, briskly. Only, she really didn't want this to end quickly, _which is odd, because keeping company with Quinn has never been at the top of my happiness inducing activities._

Quinn had similar thoughts as she stared through Rachel's half-empty glass of water, _maybe I don't want this to end quickly. God, ew, what are these baby hormones doing to me? I'll have to Google that later_. Quinn set her jaw and nodded, "All right. First question, how did you figure out the stupid pastry thing?"

Rachel let out an easy laugh, "Come on, Quinn, be serious. Kurt? Kurt takes every opportunity imaginable to humiliate me, not console me in my time of need. So I was immediately suspicious when he showed up at my door bearing baked goods." Rachel shrugged. "I stole his phone when he went out to his car to get his makeup bag. Checked his recent calls. You, a few bakeries, and then me."

Quinn groaned and Rachel showed a sad smile. "I would ask why but I'm guessing-"

"Yeah, I don't know. In all fairness, Brittany suggested taking you cookies. It just spiraled from there. God knows why."

Rachel took a bite of her ravioli, "All right, question two?"

Quinn wanted her second cheeseburger, but she snapped back into focus, tearing her eyes off Rachel's mouth - _what the hell, Fabray?_ - and thought of another question.

Rachel watched Quinn with a bemused expression while forcing down her food. She hadn't been much for eating lately, but she didn't want to be the girl that didn't eat on a date. _Whoa. What? Absolutely not, this is not a date whatsoever, Rachel Berry. Get that through your mind now. You love Jesse, anyway_. _Of course you do._ "Rachel?" Quinn questioned, a wary expression on her face. "You zoned out for a second. Or ten. Did you even hear my question?"

Rachel shook her head, "No, I'm sorry Quinn. I got caught up in my thoughts and I tend to get incredibly sidetracked-"

"Okay, it's fine. I'll just repeat myself. Do you love Jesse?"

Rachel paused mid bite in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"Do. You. Love. Jesse?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," Rachel all but snapped.

Quinn smirked. "You gave me five questions, Teletubby. It's an honest question, and probably slightly better than my original question."

Rachel sighed, heavily, and Quinn watched her chest rise dramatically. "I want to. I've been trying so hard to love him…"

"But you still love Finn." Quinn didn't say it with malice, just as a quiet statement. She leaned back in her seat as the waitress came with her other burger. Rachel's eyes traveled over the waitress and then over the burger as she thought. Quinn dove into her burger, rapidly trying to fill the hole that Rachel's unanswered question left in her stomach. She didn't want to try to figure out why this was potentially hurting her._ Might as well give up trying to explain myself when it comes to Rachel_, Quinn thought helplessly.

A few minutes passed with nothing but Quinn's happy chewing. "No," Rachel muttered. Luckily, it was in between bites, or else Quinn wouldn't have been able to hear her. Her expression told Quinn that Rachel was admitting this more to herself than to Quinn, "No. I don't love Finn. And not just because he physically abused me in passing. That incident sort of showed me the light."

That struck Quinn as odd. "What 'light'? That chasing a taken guy was bad news?"

Rachel rolled her eyes, "Is that your third question, Quinn?"

Quinn narrowed her eyes in surprise, but decided to forego this battle. "No, that's not my third question…" Quinn's face softened, "Can I ask you something, without being mean or hateful, just wanting an honest answer?"

Rachel dropped her fork, finally giving up on eating, "Sure Quinn," she said with a sigh.

"Why are you dating Jesse? Doesn't it all seem… suspicious to you?"

Rachel watched Quinn finish her burger, collecting her thoughts. Rachel was never one for impulses, far preferring to plan everything in advance in an effort to override anything that could possibly go wrong. That's why it frustrated Rachel immensely that hers and Quinn's budding friendship was practically based purely on impulses. "Do you want to stay over at my house tonight?"

Quinn paused on her last bite, mouth open. Rachel hastily continued, "It just seems as if you have a lot that you want to know, more than I could probably answer in this one sitting despite my impressive speech speed. And to be frank, I don't think you'll be missed much by either Santana or Brittany on a Friday night."

Quinn stared hard at the wall behind Rachel's head, fiddling with the remains of her cheeseburger. "And you'll answer the rest of my questions honestly?"

Rachel half rolled her eyes, "Quinn, I don't renege on deals or pinky promises. I told you I'd give you five questions, so you'll get five answers. And I won't have to sleep with every light in the house on."

Quinn motioned for the waitress to bring the checks. "Sure, all right. Why the hell not? It's always smart to have a pregnant girl on backup, anyway, to help feed your irrational fears. "

Rachel raised an eyebrow, "Say what you want, but you're the one who's going to be spending an evening at my house."

Quinn almost reconsidered.

* * *

><p>She pulled her car into the Berry driveway and idly thought,<em> I've been here more today than I have in my entire life<em>. She cringed at that thought while throwing the car into park.

"Are you sure you don't want to get any of your clothes from Brittany's house?"

Quinn shrugged, fidgeting with her seatbelt and getting out of the car, "I don't think they want to be disturbed; and anyway, Brittany's parents are out of town so… I'm sure they wouldn't even open the door."

Rachel stood on the other side of Quinn's car, eyeing the blonde. Quinn was fidgeting with her keys and not moving. Finally, Quinn breathed out, "I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. This is really weird."

Rachel half shrugged, conceding to Quinn's point before walking around to the front of the car. "Yeah, it is. In all honesty, I have no idea what we're doing or why we're doing this. I'd say we were beginning a friendship but I'm sure you would frantically try to-"

"Rachel."

"What say we make a deal?"

Quinn hesitated, her eyes tracing the outline of Rachel's dark house while her hands rested on her bulging stomach. "What kind of a deal?"

Rachel's lips curled into a smile, "Tonight, we forget that you're only here with me because you pity me, and I'll forget that I'm only accepting your pity because I think that I deserve it. Maybe we can start over tonight, or at least, try to treat each other like humans that actually like each other. Then, if it doesn't work out, come tomorrow we pretend it never happened and go back to hating each other and you stop pitying me and we forget that our brief times spent together ever happened."

"So what you're saying is," Quinn recapped, "is that when we walk through your front door, we're going to pretend that we're good friends?"

Rachel rolled her eyes, "In a horribly lacking and simplified version, yes."

"What happens when you annoy the hell out of me?"

"Do what I do, plaster a smile on your face and deal with it. Kind of like I'm doing right now," Rachel said through a chuckle as she opened the front door for Quinn. Despite her death glare, Quinn held her breath as she walked into the Berry threshold, once again thinking that she's walking into the Twilight Zone as she heard, "Welcome to my humble abode, Quinn."

* * *

><p>"How do you even function without meat?" Quinn mumbled with her head buried in the Berry fridge, "and milk! How am I supposed to stay here? No eggs even. I don't understand this."<p>

Rachel chuckled from the pantry. "Quinn, is there anything in particular that you're craving? My fathers have secret stashes that they keep in strategic places around the house that they think I don't know about. Not everyone can handle my intense vegan lifestyle."

Quinn rolled her eyes at the inside of the fridge. "I'm craving cookies and milk. Where are those super, amazing 'I'm sorry' sugar cookies that you bake?"

A minute later, Rachel shut the pantry door with her foot as she carried a tub of said cookies into the kitchen. "There's milk in the fridge in the garage if you want that as well."

Quinn shook her head, staring at the cookies with a predatory smile. "Water will be fine, actually. Thanks, Rach."

Rachel hesitated in handing the cookie over to Quinn, shaking her head at what she thought was merely a slip-up on Quinn's part in calling her 'Rach'.

Quinn hesitated in taking the cookies, "Is that allowed?"

"It sure beats man-hands," Rachel said sincerely. "Come on, let's retire to my room. I have all accommodations necessary for a proper hangout spot. Not that I've ever really hung out with anyone in there, but you get it."

Quinn nodded and through a mouth full of cookie mumbled, "Yeah, sure okay. Let's go."

Once Quinn had seated herself against Rachel's headboard and Rachel was sitting in her desk chair, the girls allowed themselves to talk.

"So, I believe you have a question to answer. Do you remember it?"

Rachel crossed her legs and nodded slowly. "I suppose I don't have to familiarize you with my past at McKinley High, Quinn. I'm not exactly the most liked person. So, of course it took me off guard when someone whom I didn't even know took interest in me, other than for just making out of course, like Noah and Finn." Quinn raised her eyebrows but said nothing. "And then I found out that he was the lead singer of Vocal Adrenaline. Of course, my suspicions were instantly peaked. However, he didn't cringe when I spoke, and he actually enjoyed hearing me sing. I am not yelled at for breathing when I'm around him. And… I needed some stability in my life. It's… been disheartening and chaotic lately, more so than usual."

Quinn knew she'd regret asking, but her damn curiosity got the best of her, "What's been disheartening?"

Rachel gave Quinn a hard look, "Being bullied and taunted as much as I am. Of course, the glee club rallying behind me was a huge plus. Nevertheless, since the adrenaline from the incident has worn off, everyone's reverted to their old ways. Well, everyone except you, Santana, and Mercedes… oddly enough. But I'm assuming that's because you two are friends." Quinn nodded with a small smile. "So, Quinn, the answer to your question of why I'm dating Jesse… is because he's stable. He makes me feel loved, and most importantly, safe. It may not be real, in fact it's probably not, but until I'm given proof otherwise, I'm going to stay with him."

Quinn ate another cookie while shaking her head. "I'm sorry. It just… I don't see it. It doesn't make sense to me. Why you're with him… that is. He isn't right for you. He's like your fraternal twin brother or something."

Rachel choked on the tea that she had brought upstairs. "Quinn, that is appalling," she said, laughing despite herself. "It's true though, sadly. He's far more of a diva than I am."

Quinn nodded, "I know, I've seen it." Rachel raised her eyebrows but Quinn swooped in again. "Okay, question four, right?" Rachel nodded. "Are you scared of Finn, now?"

Rachel shook her head vehemently, "No, not at all. He wasn't the first person to hit me, and although it was horrible coming from him, I know it was an accident. In all honesty, I believe everyone blew it out of proportion by becoming my bodyguards in a sense," Rachel paused, meeting Quinn's stormy eyes, "What's wrong, Quinn?"

"What do you mean that's not the first time you've been hit?"

"Is that you're question fi-"

"Rachel!" Quinn all but shouted, sitting up cross-legged on the bed, "Forget about the damn questions. Friends don't limit questions, right? Friends just care."

Rachel was quiet, and eventually she moved to sit at the foot of her bed, not facing Quinn. "You understand I've been bullied most of my life. It was at your command that I received slushies daily." Quinn closed her eyes and bowed her head as Rachel continued. "However, there were instances when the more Neanderthal of the jocks would push me into lockers and dump me into dumpsters, not unlike what Kurt has had to deal with. However, I've also been slapped and, well, manhandled by them. Of course, I immediately alerted Principal Figgins but that was always to no avail because he'd mumble something about a school hierarchy and send me to Ms. Pillsbury. That died down after I became close to Finn and Noah, thankfully."

Quinn burned holes into Rachel's back, "That's not right. That's not legal."

A sad smile crossed Rachel's face, "And if it were anyone but me, it would have been dealt with. It's fine. That's in my past and I kept my head held high. The hit from Finn just brought back unpleasant memories. I worked through it with my therapist though, so I'm okay now."

"Are you?"

The brunette turned and mirrored Quinn's position on her bed. "I'm getting through it. My resolve temporarily cracked and things surfaced, but I'm getting better. I sort of have friends now, and I don't think I have a mortal enemy anymore either, so that makes life easier," she said, giving Quinn an easy smile.

"I don't hate you, Rachel. I said I did in Brittany's room, and at school I said I didn't like you. That was a lie."

Rachel's eyes bore into Quinn's, "I know. I'm going out on a ledge here and guessing that if tonight goes well, we'll be friends."

Quinn grinned, "I thought we already were. At least behind these walls." Rachel grinned back. A full smile and Quinn gasped. "Your teeth!"

Rachel covered her mouth quickly, "What's wrong with my teeth?"

Laughing, Quinn shook her head, "No, no - You showed your teeth. You actually smiled. Me and Santana were talking about this the other day and you just don't smile with your teeth anymore and we… didn't notice that."

Rachel dropped her hand from her mouth but her jaw still hung slack. "You and Santana really do care about me."

A faint blush crossed Quinn's cheeks. "Moment of honesty? She told me off today in the cafeteria about that."

Rachel mumbled, "I was wondering what was going on there…"

"She seems to think that I've shown you more compassion than I've shown to anyone else. I guess that's true," she mumbled bitterly.

Rachel was quiet for a moment. "I notice a lot of things about you, Quinn. The way you watch me when you think I'm not paying attention, the way you and the others go out of your way to make Jesse trip in practice, the way you talk about him…" Rachel trailed off, thinking hard before adding, "and the way you talk to me is unlike how you talk to anyone else. You can't seem to control yourself around me."

"Excuse me?"

"It's not a bad thing, Quinn. You people watch a lot, I've noticed that too. Just, for a while it's been trained on me. I just can't figure out why it is that I don't mind it."

Quinn's wide eyes were fixed on Rachel, hard, and with a clenched jaw she bit out, "What are you trying to say?"

"Why are you so afraid of what I'm going to say?"

Quinn stood up as quickly as she could, hands on her stomach. "I'm not gay, damnet!"

Silence. Rachel froze, her eyes on the spot where Quinn was just sitting. Quinn stood stock-still; her breath had escaped her body as quickly as those words had._ Why did I say that?_ That and other questions of that style passed through Quinn's mind like lightning.

Rachel was the first to speak. "I wasn't insinuating that you were."

"I should leave," Quinn stated, not moving.

Rachel slowly turned her body, swinging her legs off the bed and standing up in front of Quinn. "Probably, but I don't want you to."

Quinn breathing was erratic, she was panicking. "I should leave. I don't know - I never know why I say these stupid things to you. I swear you drug me. What was in those cookies?"

Rachel put her hands on Quinn's shoulders. "I think you're having a panic attack. Just take deep breaths, okay? I've done extensive research on panic attacks thanks to an eighth grade report."

Quinn shrugged out of under Rachel's grasp and held her hands in front of her, "Just shut up, okay? Now is not the time for your psychobabble. Do you know how awkward this is for me? I've never felt this awkward and stupid before."

"Quinn, I find that hard to believe, you did sleep with Puck."

Blonde eyebrows shot up, "Do you - are you serious? I can't believe you just…" she trailed off, laughter shaking her entire body. Rachel let out a breath, knowing that comment could have gone either way, and smiling at how it went the right way.

Once her laughter died down, hazel eyes darted to brown ones. "I'm sorry for that," she said, taking a deep breath and speaking slowly, "Santana gave me this long speech and compared you and me to her and Brittany and it just, I told her that but she was gone and I think she got the wrong idea about why I'm showing you compassion."

Rachel took a deep breath, "Aren't her and Brittany…?"

"Yes."

"Oh, so she thinks…?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"I should go," Quinn said again, this time managing to take a few steps to the door. She took five steps before Rachel grabbed her elbow.

"You shouldn't leave. You're worked up now, and you might endanger yourself and the baby if you get in a car now. Plus it's dark, and late-"

"It's nine."

"Exactly. You're staying. You still have one question left."

Quinn and Rachel stared each other down, that is, until Quinn gave in. She slumped into Rachel's desk chair and spun it around a few times. "I had a lot of questions for you."

Rachel had sat back down on the foot of her bed. "And you've forgotten them?"

Shrugging, Quinn shook her head. "No, they all just seem… I don't know, trivial now."

"This should be an extremely awkward situation now."

"And it's not?"

Rachel shrugged. "I'm not sure what to make of it. It would all make sense, however. Your interest in me and, so on…"

Quinn stopped spinning the chair, "Pardon? I don't like you like that, Berry."

"Of course not. That thought never even crossed my mind."

"You sure as hell are talking like it did."

"Am I? I hadn't noticed."

"I mean it," Quinn hissed, "Santana is an idiot."

"Santana has a weird way of showing affection."

"Why do you still have her jacket?"

Rachel looked taken back. "Why do you care?"

Quinn roared, "Screw this! I'm not sticking around for this stupid inquisition. I knew you and I could never be friends."

"I don't think I want to be friends with you either, Quinn."

Quinn's shoulders sagged as she stood up and walked to the door. "Good. At least that's been established. Your deal said we'd forget the other person exists if this didn't work out, and clearly it didn't. So I'm leaving. Thanks for tonight or, whatever, Berry." She turned and this time, she made it out of the door.

* * *

><p>She made it to the front door before she realized she'd left her purse in Rachel's room. She hit the door with the palm of her hand and whirled around.<p>

"Forgetting something?" Rachel questioned, standing at the bottom of the stairs and dangling Quinn's purse from two fingers.

Quinn bit her bottom lip and waited while Rachel approached her. "This is weird, Rachel."

Rachel's eyes searched Quinn's for a moment before breathing out, "I don't want you to leave either."

Quinn's eyes stared through the purse that was swinging on the brunette's fingers and mumbled, "Baby hormones."

Rachel shrugged, "I'm not personally harboring a baby so I have nothing to blame for this. All I know is that I want you to stay… with me, and it's all very confusing."

Quinn hesitated, "This is-"

"Weird, I know," Rachel finished, stepping closer to Quinn.

"This doesn't mean we're-"

"Friends either, of course not," Rachel added, eyeing the height difference between her and Quinn as she took yet another step forward.

"Jesse?" Quinn questioned, noticing the scar on Rachel's forehead.

"I've been planning on breaking up with him for a week. Puck?"

Quinn almost laughed, "Are you kidding me? No."

Rachel was as close as possible to Quinn without actually having to touch her. "Do you know that our entire fickle relationship thus far has been based on pure impulses and uncontrollable feelings that have been building up and that we're only now unable to control?"

"Unable or unwilling, but yeah, I noticed," Quinn breathed, noticing the Finn scar under Rachel's eye.

"Are you leaving or not, Quinn?"

Quinn's breath rolled over Rachel's face as she exhaled. "I wish this made sense. I wish anything dealing with you made sense," she hissed in a low whisper. She kept her eyes glued to Rachel's as two things simultaneously happened.

Quinn reached out and grabbed her purse from Rachel's hand as Rachel grabbed a fistful of Quinn's dress and pulled her in. They kissed and Quinn's purse fell from her hand, quickly replacing the lost purse with the front of Rachel's shirt.

They broke apart and Quinn breathed against Rachel, "Do you still want me to stay?"

Rachel nodded as she grabbed Quinn's hand and led her to the stairs, "Don't ask me why, and I know better to not ask you, but I want you to stay, and I know that you want to."

Quinn let Rachel lead her back up to her bedroom.


	7. 7

Rachel woke up to darkness. She rolled over in her bed and let out a groan at the soreness of her back before smiling as she remembered why it was sore. She groggily blinked her eyes a few times, adjusting to the dark as she threw a hand to the other side of the bed: empty. She sighed as she sat up, plucking the fabric of her grey, baggy t-shirt as she yawned. "Quinn?" she called out quietly, not expecting to get an answer. Quinn was gone. "Alone again…" she mumbled.

The brunette kicked her legs over the side of her bed and sat for a few minutes, simply holding her head in her hands and breathing, listening to the crickets chirp outside. "God, I wish I knew what I was doing," she mumbled to the darkness. Glancing at her clock, Rachel took note that it was 4 A.M before her bare feet padded downstairs, dressed in nothing but pink skimpy shorts and an oversized shirt.

She rounded the corner to her kitchen and stopped in her tracks as she saw a figure sitting at her kitchen table, hunched over a cup of something. Her breath hitched and the figure's head shot up at the girl's entrance.

"Rachel, it's just me, it's okay." The brunette fumbled for the light switch on the wall as the kitchen was suddenly bathed in light. Quinn sat at the table with Rachel's plaid pajama bottoms and a plain white t-shirt on. She nursed a cup of coffee that had gone cold a half an hour prior. "I made coffee. There's still some in the pot if you want any. It is yours, after all."

Rachel shook her head, dumbstruck, as she sat down across from Quinn. "I don't drink coffee," she stated, quietly, "bad for the voice."

Quinn chuckled over the cup's rim as she took a drink and winced at the coldness, "Figures."

"You're still here?"

Quinn set down the cup and arched an eyebrow, "Looks like it."

Rachel fumbled for the right words, "Did we really…?"

Quinn's eyes closed tightly, "Yeah."

"I - I mean, at least we didn't… go all the way."

Quinn snorted into her cup, "Geez, Rach, be more relieved that we didn't have spontaneous sex."

Rachel stared hard at Quinn, and Quinn would have given anything in that moment to be able to read minds. "I feel like I should apologize."

The diva shook her head, "I'm pretty sure I was the one who kissed you, initially. I should be apologizing since you made it completely clear earlier that you were, indeed, not gay."

"And you are?"

"I - Well," Rachel sputtered, eyebrows furrowed together deep in thought before continuing, "I've had feelings for girls before, although admittedly they weren't strong ones. However, I'm not averse to having feelings for girls, especially with my upbringing. I wouldn't consider myself gay, though. I can't deny our… rather unusual chemistry, though."

Quinn stared at the brunette, surprisingly bemused, as she traced her eyes over Rachel's face. Abruptly, she stood up and took her mug to the sink. Rachel watched from her seat, confusion and fear etched into her face. The blonde calmly refilled her cup, took a sip of the hot coffee and smiled at the mug as she sat back down.

Rachel huffed and made a wild hand gesture before half yelling, "Quinn! We made out! I mean, we spontaneously made out in my bed for hours. How are you this calm?"

Quinn set down her coffee cup as her eyebrows shot up, "Who said I was calm? I'm just not being a ten year old about it like you are. Why don't we just stay -"

"I think you should leave."

She hesitated, "It's 4 A.M, okay? I'm not leaving."

Rachel groaned, "This is insane. Am I dreaming? We hate each other."

"We don't hate each other," Quinn pointed out calmly, taking another sip of her coffee, "remember? This is our night to be friends and put our differences aside."

Rachel stood up dramatically and slapped her hands, palm down, on the table. "How can you be so serene about this? By now, you should be saying 'gotcha!' while Santana comes out of the closet with a tape recorder and a baseball bat or something! Something to have this make sense, it has to be some elaborate prank." Quinn bit her lip, holding back the laughter that was bubbling up inside of her after hearing Santana should be coming out of the closet.

Quinn regained her composure and leaned back, opening her mouth to speak as the sound of glass breaking came out instead of her voice. She snapped her mouth closed as her wide eyes met Rachel's, mirroring hers. They jumped up and ran through the dark house to the living room. Quinn, despite being weighed down by her baby, made it to the living room before Rachel did. She eyed the brick laying on the floor, surrounded by the glass of the shattered front window, bathed in moonlight. She didn't need to pick it up to read the note that had been attached to it. She felt Rachel stiffen next to her as she read it too. Written in big, black, block letters read, "FAGGOT FAMILY".

Quinn's head shot up as Rachel ran to the front door, furious at the attack. "Rachel, no!" Quinn yelled as she charged as best she could towards the shorter girl. But she was too late as Rachel raced out of the door with fire in her eyes as she faced the group of jocks in her front yard.

"Oh, look! We woke the devil's spawn!" A Cheerio called, arms folded over her chest while next to her some football players smirked.

Quinn pressed herself flat against the wall by the front door, breathing heavily. She laid a hand on her stomach and thought of her reputation, and how God-awful it would be if anyone actually knew she was here. Even if her car was in the driveway, there was still a chance…

"Excuse me, first I would like to point out that I am not the devil's spawn. My parents, I can assure you, are better than all of yours combined, and I do not have to meet them to know that. Secondly, are you aware of the damage you just inflicted on my house? Not only was it property damage, but it was a hate crime, and I will make sure -"

"Shut up tranny," another nameless Cheerio shouted - Quinn shrank further into the wall, closing her eyes tightly and letting out a broken sob at the nickname she'd started years ago - "wanna hear a joke?"

"And no, we don't mean you in general," Karofsky snickered from the back of the group, bulky arms folded across his chest.

Rachel stood at the doorway, arms folded and a blank expression on her face as she slowly broke inside. The cheerleader waited for the laughter to die down before she continued, "You'll never be the man your mother was, you know. Oh wait," she said through a grin, "what mother?"

Quinn's hands tightened on her stomach as she lightly laid her head against the wall behind her. She heard the crack in Rachel's voice and prayed no one else did. "Your pathetic insults will do nothing to help you in court. So I hope this little practical joke was worth it."

Karofsky stepped forward, another brick in his hand as he smirked, "Might as well go all out shouldn't we?" He chucked the brick and then Rachel saw blackness.

* * *

><p>Rachel groaned as she woke. A low, throaty groan that made her wince against the blackness of her eyelids. "Rachel? Stay down, okay? Don't move."<p>

The brunette opened and closed her hands that were lying to the sides of her as she tried to feel her surroundings. "Where am I?"

Quinn leaned forward in the chair, dabbing at Rachel's forehead with a washcloth. "You're in your bed. I didn't think you needed to go to the hospital but… I'm probably wrong on that."

Rachel groaned again, "If you felt I needed to go to the hospital you should have taken me. I don't want to die before I get to be a star, Quinn. I know you don't like me but you didn't need to kill me."

Hazel eyes rolled as she shook her head, "I don't think you're going to die, and your mouth seems to be working fine so I'm not worried." _Which is a lie_, she thought, staring at the huge bandage she'd wrapped around Rachel's head.

Rachel opened her eyes slowly, wincing at the pain, "Did they really throw a brick at me?"

"They really did."

"What happened after that?"

"Well," she began, sitting back in the chair she'd pulled to Rachel's bed, "they left. I guess they figured their bullying job had been done for the night and so they… left."

A small hand slowly made a path to her head as she felt a bandage. "What's wrong with my head, Quinn?"

"The brick hit you in the head… I mean, that doesn't just not leave a mark. I don't think you have a concussion since you aren't in a coma or anything. But you have a big cut from your forehead to a little ways into your hair. I wrapped a big bandage around it after cleaning it, which was easy since you were knocked out cold so you couldn't bitch at me the whole time."

Rachel eyed Quinn skeptically, "How did you get me to my room?"

"I-I…" she sputtered, trying to come up with an excuse when Rachel's door opened.

"Quinn, I think the - Rachel! You're up!"

Rachel's head turned too fast as she gasped, "Finn?" Choosing that moment to get a head rush, which Quinn thought was rather dramatic, Rachel passed out again.

Finn stood in the doorway, mouth open, as Quinn shot him a look. "Smooth."

* * *

><p>"Unguh," Rachel muttered, blinking open her eyes again. She heard shifting next to her as she opened her eyes, "Quinn?"<p>

Tina and Artie exchanged a smile before Tina leaned forward, "No sweetie, it's me and Artie."

"Why are you in my room?"

Artie shook his head vehemently, "First thing's first, we need to check you for a concussion," he stated, unclipping a tiny flashlight from his suspenders.

She winced as a light was shone in one eye, then the other. "Do I have a serious head wound, Artie?"

The boy shook his head, "No, you don't. It's just gonna hurt like a mofo on crack for a few days, ya know?"

Rachel nodded slowly, "Good… to know. If I may ask, why are you all here?"

The couple exchanged a confused look before Tina spoke up. "Quinn called us at like, 4:30. Told us what happened and that she needed us, and we all came." Rachel's brow furrowed, signaling her confusion, so Tina continued. "You know… she managed to pull you into the doorway and shut the door, but she needed our help to get the assholes to leave and the guys help to carry you upstairs."

"Quinn said… that they just left, that they didn't cause any more problems."

Tina's eyebrows shot up as Artie started stuttering, "Oh - oh - well, r-right. That's what happened. We just must have heard wrong. Oh! Look at the time; it's time… to leave." Tina stood up, gave Rachel a brief hug, then speed-wheeled her and Artie from the room, leaving a confused Rachel.

After a few minutes she head, "Rach? You up?" The brunette nodded as she watched Mercedes come into her room wearing a bright smile. "Hey girl, how's the head?"

Rachel shrugged, sitting herself against the headboard, "It doesn't hurt as much as my pride does right now. You'd think random hate crimes would get old by now, but then again, this is small town Lima."

"Where the winners are," Mercedes finished with an eye roll, "I hear ya. Quinn should be up in a few minutes with some soup or something, I don't know. She heard you were up and sprang into action."

"Mercedes," Rachel began, motioning for the girl to take a seat near her bed, "can I ask you a question?"

Mercedes eyed the door warily, but gave in and sat in the chair. "Yeah, shoot."

"What did Quinn have to do to get the mob of delinquents to go away?"

Mercedes grumbled a bit as her gaze flicked to the door again. "Why do you ask?" Rachel fixed her with a pointed look and she sighed, "She freaked when you went down, went onto the porch and yelled up a storm. I guess she got some hate, obviously, for being with you. But she gave as well as she got and she was able to pull you in far enough to close the door. She was pissed that she lost so much of her bitch appeal because the mob didn't leave, just started pulling other crap. So she called us to help."

"Did anyone question why she was here in the first place?"

Mercedes face pulled into an expression that made Rachel feel idiotic, "Why would we need to question that?"

Rachel's expression was blank as she drew out, "Why… wouldn't you…?"

The two girls stared at each other for a few moments before Mercedes shook her head, "Never mind. No, we didn't ask. Quinn got enough of that from the idiots that were here anyway. They all think she's sleeping or living with you now or something."

Rachel sighed, "It must have been pretty bad for her to allow Finn in here."

Mercedes laughed bitterly, eyebrows shooting up, "Yeah… that was a hard call for her. She got a lot of shit from Santana but they came to an agreement about it. He sort of redeemed himself anyway when he and Puck beat the crap out of Karofsky. That was fun to watch," she finished with a reminiscing smile.

Rachel groaned as Quinn's voice cut through the air, disguising her anger with an overly cheery voice, "Mercedes! Thank you for keeping Rachel company, but I think Kurt needs you downstairs."

Two sets of brown eyes turned to see Quinn in the doorway holding a bowl of steaming soup. "Right Quinn, uh, you two take… care okay, bye," Mercedes rushed out while practically running out of the room.

Rachel's eyes stayed on Quinn as the blonde moved into the room and stood by the chair that Mercedes had just vacated. "I really wish you'd stop getting hurt."

Rachel tried to keep her head as still as possible as she regarded Quinn through hazy eyes, "If you hadn't noticed, it's your kind that chooses to continue tormenting me."

Quinn stilled, her gaze lowering to her swollen belly then back up to Rachel's eyes, "They aren't my kind anymore, you know that."

Rachel smiled softly, "I do. I just wanted to hear you admit it. I'm going to take that as your roundabout way of saying you're sort of my kind now. Thus making us friends."

"Even with a head injury you still manage to blab more worthless nonsense than anyone else. I brought you medicine and soup," Quinn said with a shake of her head, shrugging her shoulders under the weight of the tray she had brought into the room. "You weren't supposed to hear that, by the way. You know, what you got out of Mercedes."

"Why did you lie to me?" Rachel questioned, watching Quinn set up the special breakfast in bed tray that her dad kept under the sink, across her midsection.

Quinn silently gestured to the medicine and the orange juice next to the soup on the tray in front of Rachel and sat back with sad eyes. "Because… I don't know," she said, honestly, watching Rachel take the pills and wincing. "I don't even know what's going on with us right now; I didn't want to have to own up to caring about you enough to once again take care of you."

Rachel nodded as she began lazily twirling the spoon in the bowl, "Understandable. I suppose there's a lot that we need to talk about."

Quinn groaned, "Can't it just be like, some unspoken agreement that we never mention last night again?"

Rachel's eyes trace the patterns as she stirs the soup, "So, you want to forget it ever happened? Go on and pretend like there's nothing going on between us? Like there hasn't been since the day Finn hit me and you held a cold water bottle to my face, too angry to even speak? Probably even before then."

Quinn took in a sharp gasp of breath as the memory of that day coupled with Santana's lecture and Rachel's scars assaulted her senses. She idly fingered the cross around her neck as she stared through a spot on Rachel's wall. "I don't know what you expect me to say," she drew out, slowly.

Rachel winced as she swallowed down some soup._ I wonder if this is vegan soup_. That thought was quickly chased away by Quinn's words. "I expect you to tell me why you dragged me into my house, being pregnant, after I had been assaulted, after we had made out in my bed all night. I expect you to tell me why you did that and why you watch my back in school and take care of me and invite me to dinner if there's nothing between us."

Quinn's desperate eyes searched Rachel's for any sign of reprieve, any chance to get out of this. She was only met with steeled determination, so she opened her mouth pointlessly, being cut off by Jesse St. Whatever standing in the doorway.

"Rachel, babe, are you okay?"

A small smile stretched across Quinn's lips as she watched Rachel's face fall, subtly, but not enough for Jesse to notice. She stood up from her spot next to Rachel and allowed Jesse to sit down in her place. She made it to the doorway before she turned back around to Rachel, who had her eyes on Quinn as Jesse animatedly talked about how the scars this would leave would taint her looks for Broadway.

Quinn's gaze fell to the floor by her feet before she sucked in a deep breath and met Rachel's eyes. She mouthed the words, "I'm terrified," to Rachel before nodding once for clarification, turning, and leaving the couple to talk. _Break up, talk, same thing._


	8. 8

Quinn sat in a hard chair in the corner of the hospital room as she watched Rachel's legs swing lazily from her high position on the hospital room bed, thing. After one angry phone call to her fathers, Rachel somehow managed to convince them to not come home early and that she'd have a friend take her to the doctor. Quinn had volunteered to be that friend since she was the slowest to leave Rachel's house that day - Jesse being the first.

_It must be a gay thing_, Quinn thought as her eyes followed Rachel's legs, _my parents would never let this fly. They would be home in a second and I'd be grounded._ "Quinn?"

"Hmm?" Quinn responded, now wearing a black pair of Rachel's sweatpants and one of her oversized t-shirts ("How many of these things do you have, anyway?" she'd questioned as Rachel told her to pick any color out of the drawer). "Stop kicking your legs, you should be laying down."

Rachel had donned a hospital gown when she'd been made to have an MRI. She continued kicking her legs as she watched Quinn, "Thank you for coming with me, Quinn."

Quinn sighed and squirmed in the uncomfortable chair. "After last night, do you really think I could have just left today?" she questioned.

Rachel smiled softly, "No, I suppose not. That would have been poor class."

Quinn rolled her eyes as she stood up and sat down next to Rachel on the bed. "Because I'm the epitome of class."

Rachel chuckled, wincing against the bandage on her head, "You are, trust me."

"Rachel," snapped a voice from the doorway.

Quinn and Rachel looked to the door and Quinn plastered a glare on her features._ I thought Rachel broke up with him_… she thought as she practically snarled.

Jesse raised an eyebrow at Quinn as he smirked patronizingly, "Hi ho, Cheerio."

"Jesse," Rachel began quietly, "what are you doing here?"

He immediately donned a serious expression as he made his way into the room to stand in front of Rachel, whispering, "You didn't tell me you were going to the hospital. I would have taken you."

"I didn't know that I was," Rachel replied. "How did you find out?"

Quinn stood. "I'm just going to go to the cafeteria." She met Rachel's eyes and saw how upset the girl was. "I need to get about ten pounds of food in me," she said through a soft smile, holding her stomach, "I'll be back before the results get here. Trust me," Quinn reassured sternly, repeating Rachel's words from earlier. "Which will be soon," she threw in, shooting a pointed look at Jesse.

* * *

><p>Quinn hungrily devoured her breakfast. <em>It's way too early to be at a hospital<em>, Quinn thought, moving on to her next tray of food. She felt her phone vibrate in her purse as she received a text.

"How's our girl?" Mercedes had questioned.

Quinn wiped her hands on a napkin and squirmed in yet another uncomfortable hospital chair. "She's okay, we're at the hospital and they did an MRI. I'm in the caf eating while we wait for the results."

Mercedes answered quickly. "This is kinda scary. Let me know?"

Quinn nodded as she texted back, "Will do."

She was cramming another sausage into her mouth as her phone vibrated again. Glaring at it, she flipped it open to see a text from Santana. "Hey, me, Britt, Finn and Puck are together. We want to know how Rachel is. Well, Britt and they do."

Quinn smiled, "Puck and Finn are behaving? We're at the hospital, btw."

Quinn managed to finish another sausage before they texted back. "We know, Mercedes sent out a group text. You didn't answer my question, genius. How is she?"

Quinn laughed, "Geez Mercedes," she muttered under her breath as she quickly texted back. "We're waiting for the MRI results. How did Jesse find out?"

"We have no idea; want us to come kill him?"

Quinn finished off her breakfast and pushed the tray away before texting back. "No, I left them to talk in her room but I think it's been long enough."

* * *

><p>Quinn was on her way back to Rachel's room when her jock friends texted back. "You left her alone with him? Moron. Go get your girl, stop being stupid. She broke up with him btw since knowing you, you didn't know."<p>

Quinn glared at her phone as she returned it to her purse, not bothering to text back. She didn't hesitate as she walked through Rachel's door, her HBIC attitude in full swing.

She did stop when she saw the scene before her, though. Rachel had her head in her hands, slowly shaking it back and forth, as Jesse prattled on about how they should stay together.

"Rach, you okay?" she questioned, standing just inside the doorway and interrupting Jesse.

Rachel's head snapped up, causing the girl to gasp in pain. Jesse glared at Quinn, "We're in the middle of something right now, so you can come back later."

Rachel's face grew grim as she turned to Quinn, silently questioning the girl with her eyes to see if she was going to leave again.

Quinn, for the first time since the day Rachel walked away from her after apologizing for babygate, finally let her heart talk. "Hey Jesse St. Fuck you,_ out_," she hissed, completely calm.

Jesse's wide eyes turned to Rachel, "Rachel, come on-"

"You heard her," the brunette bit out, eyes glued to the side of Quinn's face as the blonde raised an eyebrow in Jesse's direction.

"Fine. We'll just talk later, Rachel. You don't get to just randomly break up with me for no reason." He brushed past Quinn, knocking into her shoulder as he left.

Quinn took a deep breath and repeated herself, "And now, you okay, Rachel?"

Rachel gingerly laid back in the bed and closed her eyes, "I am now, yes. The doctor still hasn't come in. Did you eat?"

Quinn took her seat in the uncomfortable chair again, resting her hands on her stomach. "I did, yes. Two courses to be exact," she said through a laugh. "Also, everyone texted to see how you were."

Rachel opened one eye, "That's still so weird to me."

"That the club cares about you?"

"No, that you eat so much." She smiled faintly as Quinn glared at her. "Sorry, yes that the club cares about me. It's refreshing though."

Quinn shrugged, "I guess. Do you want them here or anything?"

Rachel shook her head, "No," she said slowly, "but will you stay with me the whole time? I'm… sort of scared."

Quinn's hazel eyes searched out Rachel's brown eyes, and when she found them, she smiled. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm sick of you getting hurt."

* * *

><p>Rachel returned home a few hours later, concussion free and sporting a huge headache. She got out of Quinn's car and gasped at what she saw. The entire glee club was in her front yard, replacing the front window. Minus Santana and Brittany, who were tanning in lawn chairs in the grass, throwing out orders.<p>

"Rachel!" Mercedes yelled, "You're home! Damn, you look like hell, come sit down."

Before she knew it, Mercedes and Mike had their arms around Rachel, guiding her to the last empty lawn chair next to Santana. "You guys didn't have to do this…" Rachel whispered, smiling up at the group.

Puck scoffed, "Are you kidding me? We brought Schuester into this. He told us to buy the most expensive materials for this, add in the labor factor, and give him the bill. He's giving it to Figgins to make the douches that did this to you pay for it."

"Well, pay for it in cash," Kurt said through a chuckle, retying his boots, "we already made them pay for it, in blood."

"That's not comforting," Rachel mumbled, before smiling, "but there are only so many times you can forgive someone before needing revenge."

The group whooped as they got back to work. Rachel sat back and turned to Santana, who was wearing sunglasses, so Rachel had no idea if she was looking at her or not. Rachel's eyes moved past Santana to Brittany, who was beaming at her. Rachel smiled back. Eventually her eyes landed on her target who was sitting at the edge of Brittany's chair, watching her. "Quinn?"

"Yeah?" she answered.

Rachel quickly shot a gaze to Santana and Brittany, who were both watching her now, before continuing, "Did you know about this?"

Brittany chimed in, "She didn't! This one was all Santana's idea," she shouted, smiling brightly.

Quinn's features darkened as she slowly turned her gaze on Santana. Rachel's head swiveled, "This was your idea, Santana?"

The girl shrugged, "So I care about you, beat-down, so what?"

Rachel laughed while shaking her head and sitting back again, "That's good to know."

Quinn watched their exchange as she silently seethed. Brittany noticed. "Quinn, why are you grumpy now?"

Santana slid on a sly grin as she spoke without looking at Quinn, "Yeah Quinn, why so grumpy?"

"I'm not grumpy," Quinn snapped as she glared at the girls. "Rachel, you should go inside and take some Advil like the doctors said."

Santana held her arm out before Rachel could get up, "No, I'll get it. Come on, Q. Are your meds in your kitchen, Berry?"

Rachel nodded, watching Santana and Quinn stand up, "In the cabinet above the desk thing."

The girls went inside and Brittany jumped into the chair next to Rachel. "Does it hurt a lot?"

Rachel smiled, "Kinda, yeah."

"Are you getting used to getting hit in the head?" the cheerleader questioned.

"Uh, not really… no," Rachel responded, patting Brittany on the hand.

"That's good, I was worried. San said I don't have to worry about you anymore though because Q's gonna protect you from now on."

The brunette stared wide-eyed, "I'm sorry, what? Why would Santana say that?"

Brittany's brow furrowed, "Because she's going to make it happen, duh. She's got a plan that she's been doing, or something."

Rachel let out a quiet breath, "Why does that sound so foreboding?" Brittany stared blankly at her, so Rachel reiterated. "Foreboding… bad. Why does it sound so bad?"

Brittany grinned in understanding before stating with a grin, "Oh! Because it's Santana."

* * *

><p>"Do they have like, vegan medicine or something?" Santana barked from her spot against the fridge, eyeing Quinn as she shuffled through the cabinet, "Or is your baby stealing your brain cells? How long does it take to-"<p>

"Shut the hell up, Santana!" Quinn shouted, throwing a glare over her shoulder through her hair. Santana smirked. Quinn huffed in relief as she finally found the Advil bottle and pulled it out, turning to the other girl. "Weren't you supposed to get her a drink? Do you ever follow orders?"

Santana shrugged, not attempting to open the fridge, "From coach, yeah. No one else dictates me."

"Not even Brittany?" Quinn shot back.

Santana didn't grace Quinn with a response as she abruptly turned and yanked open the fridge door, digging through its contents with her back to Quinn as she heard, "I know what you're doing."

"Oh really?" Santana shot back, cringing at the powdered soymilk.

"Really. You're trying to force me to show that I care about Rachel by whoring yourself out to her."

Santana rolled her eyes as her fingers wrapped around a pink Vitamin Water, pulling it out and turning to face Quinn. "Is it working?"

"I kissed her." Santana raised her eyebrows. "Well, she kissed me. We kind of just kissed each other. I mean the first time, that is." Santana's lips tugged up into a smirk. "Then we kissed for a long time. In her bed."

"Okay, I get it. Then you let her get hit in the head with a brick, right?"

Quinn rolled the medicine bottle in her hand. "Yeah."

"Are you ready to admit it yet?" Santana sighed out, laying her head back on the fridge door.

Quinn used her nail to chip away at the label on the medicine bottle. She finally let out a breath that she'd been holding as she nodded her head, "Yeah, I'm ready. But only if you are."

Santana's grip tightened on the water bottle, "If you're ready, than I sure as hell am."

Quinn arched an eyebrow, "Really? It's as easy as that. What about your "reputation"?"

Santana suddenly lost her cockiness and became serious. She shrugged, "Here's the thing, I've been watching you and Berry. I mean, everyone has, sure. But I have to see it from both sides. I watched you be in denial yet obviously care about her. I watched her realize you care about her and then realize that she could finally show that she cared about you. And now I've been watching her wait for you while getting her ass kicked a few times." She took a steadying breath. "And then I finally realized that I've been you this whole time, and if that's the case… I don't want Brittany to have to wait anymore. Or get hurt anymore. So if your balls finally dropped and that light bulb turned on, I figure I can do this too."

Quinn smiled at her old friend, "These moments of humanity from you are nice. It's like we're in this together."

"We've always been in this together," Santana mumbled. "I'm just glad you finally pulled your head out of your ass."

Quinn nodded slowly, "I think we need to get this over with before I really realize what I'm doing."

* * *

><p>Santana and Quinn were met with a gossiping Brittany and Rachel as they made their way back out to the front yard.<p>

"You two bring us any food?" Finn called as he helped Puck peel off something from the new piece of glass.

Santana tossed Matt her phone and smirked, "Order a pizza; we'll add it to the tab."

The group circled around Matt, throwing in their orders, as Santana took back her seat between Brittany and Rachel. She handed Rachel her water and waited while Quinn gave the brunette her pills. "How are you feeling?" Quinn whispered cautiously, sitting on the edge of Rachel's lawn chair, hands on her stomach.

Rachel took her pills and gulped them down before responding. "As good as one can feel. Better than I would, however, if I'd come home to an empty house," she finished with a grateful smile to Santana, and Quinn found that a dark scowl was crossing her features. That was until she felt Rachel reach out and give her hand a squeeze.

Santana rolled her eyes as she watched Quinn's expression change because of such a small gesture. That was when she noticed Brittany's hands were gently stroking her arm in a subconscious motion. "B?"

"Hmm?" Brittany replied, smiling gently at Santana.

"I love you," Santana said simply, her brow furrowed and a worried expression on her face. "Is it too late to tell you that?"

Brittany smiled brightly as she leaned forward and kissed Santana softly, earning a few cat calls from the glee club whose attention was now conveniently back on the girls. "It's never too late, S. You have forever when it comes to me. Well, as long as forever is… because I'm not sure."

Santana pulled Brittany into her lap and wrapped her arms around her before re-covering her eyes with her sunglasses. "You hear that, fellow losers? Brit and I are dating, you try anything with her and you die."

"It's about friggan time," Mercedes mumbled, earning a giggle from Kurt and Tina.

"Seriously Santana," Rachel said, earning a pointed look from the girl under her shades, "even I was feeling sympathetic towards Brittany."

The club's talk lulled to a dull roar after a few minutes as Santana's news rolled off their shoulders, replaced with conversations about the pizza and what to do to Karofsky next week. Santana turned to Rachel, who was silently stroking her thumb along the back of Quinn's hand. "So you were feeling sympathetic towards B, huh Rachel? Funny, because I've been pitying you for a while too." Quinn shot Santana a dirty look as Rachel's eyes shot to Quinn's profile. "Isn't it your turn, Q?" Santana pressed.

Brittany squealed as she clapped her hands together, "Is Quinn going to -"

"Rachel," Quinn nearly shouted, cutting Brittany off until she met brown eyes. Her voice softened, "Can I talk to you, inside?"

Rachel turned her confused expression onto Brittany and Santana before returning it to Quinn, "Sure, Quinn. Let's go up to my room, I need to change anyway."

Rachel jumped up, wincing as her hand flew to her head. Still gripping Quinn's hand, she helped the pregnant girl stand up as she guided them into her house. Quinn threw one last fleeting glare at the couple on the lawn chairs before the brunette pulled her inside.

Finn watched them go from the corner of his eye before he hastily turned to Puck, "I gotta whiz man, so I'll be back."

Puck eyed him suspiciously but shrugged anyway, "Yeah, sure, just hurry back. We won't save any pizza for you if you aren't back in time."

Finn threw him a forced smile before turning and following the girls into the house. Puck and Mike watched him walk into the house, exchanging a knowing look.


	9. 9

Quinn's confident step faltered after she made it ten steps into Rachel's house. The hammering and yelling from the front yard crowded her brain and snapped her attention to the fact that she was about to tell Rachel… everything.

"Quinn?" Rachel asked, turning back to the blond. "Are you coming?" Quinn stared blankly back at Rachel, creeping the brunette out. "You're acting like you were the one that got hit with a brick. Come on," she stated, walking back and lacing her fingers through Quinn's. "It's just me."

Quinn allowed Rachel to pull her upstairs and back into her bedroom. Memories of the night before came rushing back and Quinn actually smiled. "You know, last night didn't go as bad as I thought it would."

Rachel's eyes rolled upwards and then back to Quinn. Quinn smiled lightly before closing her eyes and shaking her head, "Minus the attack. Before… the attack, I mean. Before."

Rachel moved to her dresser and began looking for a clean pair of sweatpants. "If I recall, I was attempting to throw you out in a panic before we were interrupted."

Quinn chuckled as she plucked at the hem of her borrowed shirt, "Yep. And I was refusing. You were freaking out pretty bad…" she trailed off as she watched Rachel pull out a gold tank top, "but you seem calm now. I, on the other hand, am not calm anymore."

Rachel sighed as she closed the drawer, "Is this what you wanted to talk to me about, Quinn? While I don't mind actually discussing these feelings between us, I'd have to insist that-"

"I love you, Rachel." Quinn closed her eyes because God, how cliché was that? She took Rachel's silence with a grain of salt as she continued talking. "I don't know how much, or if it's real, because I've never been in love with anyone before. All I know is that I keep caring about you, a lot, and I have never been able to figure out why. Then I just really loved spending time with you even though the whole time I was trying to think of excuses why. And then when we kissed it just… that was it. I was lost."

She opened one eye to try to gauge Rachel's reaction. The brunette had moved to sit on the edge of her bed, and her white knuckles were just about pulling the tank top in her hands apart. Quinn opened her other eye and moved to sit down next to Rachel. She almost smiled at how it perfectly resembled when Rachel had come to talk to her after babygate had exploded in her face.

"Everyone has seen it but me, apparently. And when I was in the kitchen with Santana today we basically just… forced the other to tell you guys that we loved you. I'm so sick of you getting hurt, and I don't want to be the cause for it anymore, Rachel."

Rachel finally met Quinn's eyes. "You think you love me? Quinn, just because you care greatly about your former enemy does not mean that you love me."

Quinn arched an eyebrow, "Excuse me? I'm not an idiot, Rachel, and you're seriously ruining the moment."

Rachel scoffed and shook her head, "I'm sorry, the moment? I just… Quinn, I think you should leave. I just need time to process things."

Quinn gapped at Rachel as she watched her get up and move towards her bathroom. As the door clicked without another word from Rachel, Quinn's shocked gaze moved to her feet as she forced herself to stand up. She made her way out into the hallway and bumped into a resisting force.

"What the hell are you doing, Quinn?"

Quinn's brow furrowed as she looked up into Finn's face. "What the hell are you doing in here, Finn? Rachel and I were having a private conversation. Were you listening in?"

Finn laughed as he leaned against the wall, "Seriously? You think you can sort of become her friend, take care of her a few times, and expect her to be in love with you? I cannot believe you think you love her. You don't know what it's like to be in love with her."

Quinn glanced back at Rachel's bedroom door, "Oh I'm sorry, did I not meet a requirement? Let me go back in there and punch her in the face, then we'll talk."

Finn balled his fist at his sides. "Where is she, anyway? I want to talk to her. Her and me had something before you came along and ruined everything, you know. I actually had a chance with her before you."

"Was that before or after you were cheating on me with her? Oh wait, that was during."

Finn glared daggers as he spat out, "Oh, kind of like how you screwed my best friend behind my back, gave me hell for not taking care of a baby that wasn't mine, and _then_ stole the girl I was in love with from under my nose?"

Quinn's eyes were wide in shock as she wavered on her feet. Her hands clutched at her baby bump as she leaned against a wall. "I took care of her, okay? I didn't steal her from you, I protected her from you."

"And who in the hell is going to protect her from you, Quinn? You really think you won't, and haven't, been hurting her worse than I ever did?"

Quinn froze. She tried to make her mouth work but no sound would come out as Finn's words sunk in._ He's right_.

"Finn, Quinn," Rachel's quiet voice said from behind them, "stop."

Quinn spun around with a guilty look on her face and Finn cringed. He tried to move past Quinn to put a hand on Rachel's shoulder, but Quinn held a hand out to stop him. "Rachel," the boy stuttered, "I didn't… we didn't…"

Quinn's eyes traced Rachel's face as Rachel grew more and more stoic. Quinn sighed as she realized Finn was only making things worse. "Finn," Quinn snapped, "we did. We meant everything we just said." She kept her eyes on Rachel's as the brown ones met hers. "There is an incredible amount of unresolved issues right here, between the three of us. We need to get it resolved, together…" she trailed off, giving Rachel a pointed look, "and separately."

Rachel glanced past Quinn, to Finn, as she held out her hand for the boy to take. Quinn's gaze dropped as Finn brushed past Quinn and into Rachel's room with the brunette. "I'll just wait out here, then…" Quinn said quietly as the door clicked closed.

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes had gone by when Puck came in. He found Quinn on the floor, her back against the wall, across the hallway from Rachel's door. He paused momentarily. "Mind if I sit?"<p>

Quinn looked up to him with sad eyes and shrugged. "Not my house."

Puck shook his head with a small grin as he sat down next to her. "We didn't end so well, did we Q?"

Quinn sighed as she moved her gaze from the wooden door to the pair of hazel eyes that she once trusted. "No, Puck… we didn't."

They sat in comfortable silence for a couple minutes before Puck spoke again. "I was really hurt that you didn't want to be with me. I'm not… used to that, you know? Chicks dig me, and they're usually ripping each other's hair out to get me," Puck started, ignoring Quinn's scoff of laughter, "but the one girl that I thought I wanted, didn't want me back. That sucked."

Quinn moved her gaze back to the doorway. "I get that." Puck raised an eyebrow at her profile as she continued, "I didn't before. I thought you were just… being Puck. Claiming your property or, whatever. Now I know that… well, you really liked me."

Puck moved his gaze from her face to the wall. "I thought I loved you. I realize what a mistake that would've been. I'm not good for you, Q, but Rachel? Rachel is."

Quinn started, "What?"

Puck rubbed his mohawk and chuckled. "Don't be dumb. We all know you love her, and that she loves you. We've all been trying to figure out when it happened, but whatever. It's cool, okay?" he said seriously, nudging her in the shoulder, "Don't worry about me, I'm actually really cool with it."

Quinn blinked back the tears in her eyes as she wrapped the boy in a hug as best as she could while sitting on the floor next to him. "Thank you, Puck," she whispered.

He pulled back and rested a hand on her baby bump. "It's the least I could do for my baby mama. How long have they been in there?"

Quinn shrugged. "Like, twenty five minutes, I guess. I don't know what they're saying, but if Finn…"

"I'll handle it," Puck said seriously, putting an end to her unspoken doubt.

* * *

><p>Ten minutes after that, Rachel's doorway opened. Rachel came out first and hesitated in surprise as she saw Quinn and Puck sitting across the hall.<p>

It was then that Finn brushed past Rachel, stopping in front of Puck and Quinn. Puck raised an eyebrow, but helped himself and then Quinn up. "You okay, dude?"

Finn gulped. He looked like he'd been crying. "Yeah, uhm, let's just go outside and finish the work out there so we can head home, okay?"

Puck nodded and threw a glance to Rachel. The brunette nodded to let him know everything was all right. Finn paused, however, and turned back to Quinn. He took a deep breath and shuffled his feet before mumbling, "Everything's going to be okay, all right?" He waited for her to nod before he nodded himself and started down the hall.

The boys walked down the stairs and Quinn turned to Rachel. Rachel stood in the doorway, staring hard at Quinn. Quinn stared back.

"Are you and Finn…?" Quinn began eventually, resting her hands on her stomach and furrowing her brows together in worry. "You know," she urged, clearing her throat as Rachel made no move to speak, "together… now?"

Rachel's face showed no emotion as she took in a breath. "How can you honestly think that you love me? I thought you were supposed to be smart, Quinn."

Quinn gaped as her eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me? Why is it so hard for you to realize that someone may actually love you? Do you believe that Finn does?"

Rachel didn't hesitate. "Yes."

"Oh, he does, but I can't?"

Rachel shrugged, "I don't think so, no. I don't think you can love anybody, Quinn. You don't know your own heart well enough to know what it's like to give it away."

The blond was rendered speechless, so Rachel continued. "All I'm saying, Quinn, is that I'm the first person you've ever… shall we say, softened up for. Maybe aside from Puck… but still. I don't think you know what it's like to love someone because you don't even love yourself."

Quinn completely tensed up as her rage bubbled out. "No. No, you don't get to just sit here and tell me that I don't know what love is. Have you ever even told anyone that you loved them? Jesse? Finn? Puck? Anyone? You, all high and mighty on your throne above everyone else in this town, you're a liar. You may think that I've never softened up to anybody, and hell, maybe that's true, but it does not mean that I don't know what love is. I haven't kept my heart on lockdown because I don't know how to love, Rachel, I've kept it guarded because I haven't met anyone worth giving it to. Until now.

"You, on the other hand, are the opposite. You've tried everything to get acceptance and love from everyone, anyone, really. And you've been shot down every single time. So maybe, maybe I'm too cold to love. But you, you're too jaded to."

"We hated each other," Rachel said quietly.

Quinn threw her hands up, assuming that Rachel heard nothing of what she just said. "Yeah, we did. We probably still do."

"We would never work," Rachel stated, shaking her head while deep in thought.

"We have been so far. As long as I don't, you know, run away or get scared."

"We haven't even been close, Quinn, how can you love me?"

Quinn bit her lip. "I just do, okay? I can't explain it, and I wish I could. But you know-"

"That you can't ever explain anything when it comes to me," Rachel finished, earning a smile from Quinn.

"Exactly. If you don't love me, Rachel, or at least don't think that you ever could, tell me now. Because if you don't tell me that, I'm not leaving."

Rachel's head shot up and she winced, putting her hand on her wound. "Is that a threat?"

A blond eyebrow arched. "You bet your ass it is, Berry. I'll be downstairs when you're ready to answer me."

Rachel held her hand out to stop Quinn, but she only grasped air as the blond headed down the stairs. The diva sighed._ I've made out with Quinn, been the victim of a hate crime, gone to the hospital, broken up with Jesse, told Finn that I didn't love him, and gotten a love confession from one Quinn Fabray_… she thought as she made her way into her room, _who does this? Rachel Berry, when did you become such a hot commodity_?

Rachel sat down on the edge of her bed and took in a deep breath. She didn't need to think about what Quinn said, and she didn't need to make any decisions. She hadn't loved Jesse, Finn, and certainly not Puck. Well… she loves Puck and Finn as friends but nothing more. But actually telling someone that she loved them? That was an entirely different ballgame.

"I don't think I can do this…" Rachel whispered to herself as she began to cry. Her head shot up when she heard a knock on her doorframe.

She quickly wiped her eyes and looked over to see Santana leaning in her doorway, looking less hostile than usual but still eerily determined. Santana stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. "We need to have a little talk. Don't try to escape out of the window; I have Puck guarding it already."


	10. 10

Quinn shoved her hands in her sweatpants' pockets as she shuffled over the doorstep to the front yard. As soon as her shoe touched grass, an incredibly strong blond was pulling her to the side. "Brittany, okay! Okay - Brittany, pregnant! Be careful with me."

The blond cheerleader pulled Quinn around Rachel's house away from the glee club that was just hanging out at that point as opposed to working, and into the shade of the garage.

"You told her you loved her, didn't you?"

It was blunt and honest and shouldn't have knocked the air out of Quinn, but it did.

"Yeah… ye- holy - Brittany. I told Rachel Berry that I love her," Quinn said, sinking into the wall and blinking repeatedly as if to wake herself up from a dream. "I wasn't actually supposed to tell her that. Why did I tell her that?"

"Because you made a deal with Santana?" Brittany offered, her gaze flicking to the side of the house, out of Quinn's view.

Quinn breathed in. "Well, yes. But it's as if… it was the right time for me to tell her, but I don't think it was the right time for her to hear it… you know? I've felt it… and figured it out… but I don't… think she has… so it must have caught her off guard. Hell, we only just kissed for the first time last night… oh my God. That was only last night! And now I'm telling her that I love her!"

"But you do love her," Brittany stated obviously, giving Quinn a look. "You have for a while. That's why you weren't mad at her when she told Finn the truth, and why you helped her when Finn hit her."

Quinn stared at Brittany with warm hazel eyes. "It's easier for you to grasp, Brit, because you've always known that Santana loved you. You were just waiting for her to tell you. Rachel hasn't always known."

Brittany shuffled her feet and smiled. "I think you're wrong."

Quinn smiled in a placating matter before shaking her head. "I don't think so, B. Santana seems to think Rachel's been waiting for me to admit my feelings, but… she didn't take it well. She's like… crazy bipolar… I just wish that she could sort out her feelings for me and then talk it over with me like normal human beings. But I guess nothing about… Rachel… is… you…" Quinn paused, noticing the quiet and peeking around the corner to the front yard. "B? Why isn't Santana with you? She's always with you."

Quinn met Brittany's terrified eyes as she turned back to the glee group and silently counted them. "Where are Santana and Puck?"

Brittany's eyes darted back and forth. "At the dentist. The one that isn't in Rachel's room."

Quinn's eyes widened as she took off as fast as she could around the corner. She heard Brittany call out after her, but Quinn was already waddling up the steps to the front door, headed to Rachel's room.

* * *

><p>Santana heaved a sigh as she glanced at her cell phone. "We have probably ten minutes before Brittany screws up and Quinn realizes what I'm doing."<p>

Rachel gripped the edge of her bed with white knuckles. "What you're doing? I-I thought that we were friends now, Santana. You were protecting me from-"

"I'm not here to hurt you, beat-down," Santana snapped, rolling her eyes, "I thought you didn't have a concussion."

"That's offensive, Santana," Rachel stated, crossing her arms over her chest.

"And beside the point," Santana bit out, checking her phone again and sitting down in Rachel's desk chair. "I'm not going to waste any time here, okay? So, shut up and listen."

Rachel loosened her grip on her bed and put on her best serious face. Santana's gaze flicked to the wound on Rachel's head and she held back a wince. "I know that Quinn told you she loves you. Ah, ah, ah!" Santana snapped, raising up her hand to shut Rachel up. "I said you're just going to listen. Here's the deal. You and Quinn have been giving each other the fucking run-around since the beginning of sophomore year."

Rachel bit her lip and nodded as Santana continued. "You two have seriously been taking turns fucking with each other in some sick dance to figure out your repressed sexual desires, got it? Don't give me that look; you know that I'm right. So, here's the thing. You being hit was what did it for Quinn. She decided right then and there that everything in your guys' past was done, gone, and that she was going to try to make shit okay with you. She didn't tell me this, but any dumbass can see it. So, she did that in her own dumbass, repressed, gay teenager Quinn way. Which means passive niceness and so much ust that I gave up eating around her because it just made me too sick."

Rachel sucked in a deep breath and shook her head. "Santana, you realize that you're basically telling me that Quinn and I have been in love with each other since… what, babygate? Before then?"

Santana merely cocked an eyebrow as Rachel continue, urged on by her silence. "And that I apparently have no handle on my feelings because I've been giving Quinn the same "run-around" that she's been giving me?"

Santana kept her face straight as she stared Rachel down. "Rachel, can you honestly tell me that Quinn telling you she loved you caught you off guard?"

Rachel shrugged. "Of course it did." Santana glared. "It… okay… it caught me off guard, yes, but not because it was Quinn saying it… but because it was _Quinn_ saying it!"

Santana opened her mouth to tell Rachel how dumb she thought she was when there was a bang on the door. Santana checked her phone and cursed. "Okay, less time than I thought. Look, Berry, this is me looking out for you and Quinn. I don't know what you said to her to upset her so badly, but whatever you said, you were wrong. You and I both know that. Telling yourself that you don't love Quinn won't make it true and it won't make whatever sick problems you have with love go away, either. I suggest taking some time and sorting everything out. All of this shit has just been piled on your lap and you went from making out with Quinn to having her speak the things you haven't been able to speak."

"Santana, I swear to all that is holy that I will take Brittany and-"

"Rachel," Santana snapped, drawing the brunette's attention from the door and back on Santana. "She does love you. And you love her. If you two don't figure this shit out, I'll beat you myself. Take some time and sort yourself out. Get your head healed, and then work on your heart. Or… let Quinn handle that," Santana finished with a shrug. Rachel and Santana's gaze snapped to the door as a loud crash resounded through the room.

Rachel blinked as she took in her door swinging open on its hinges and Quinn standing in the doorway with Puck and Brittany behind her. "I tried, San. I can't really hold back Quinn."

Santana stood up from the chair across from Rachel and gave the brunette one last glance before brushing past Quinn and whispering, "Chill the fuck out, Q. You'll thank me for this later."

Brittany grabbed Santana's hand, and Santana's frown instantly melted into a smile as she allowed Brittany to tow her down the hall. Puck sputtered an excuse about finishing up outside before he ducked out of the room and left the two girls to themselves.

Rachel and Quinn had locked eyes the minute Quinn came into the room, and they hadn't moved since. The brunette slowly stood up and rubbed her sweaty palms on her sweats. "Quinn…"

Quinn shook her head softly, stopping Rachel before she could start. "Did Santana say anything to upset you?"

Rachel's mouth slowly slid closed as she shook her head. Quinn nodded as her gaze roamed Rachel's room. "Good. I'm gonna bail, okay? Don't forget to take your medicine." Rachel took a step forward and opened her mouth to speak but Quinn quieted her once more. "Please… don't. Just, think about what I said, okay? I'll see you in glee." The blond turned on her heel, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and left Rachel alone in her room.

Rachel blinked as she realized how badly her head hurt. _This is way, way too much to process in one day. Hell, in one year!_ She stood frozen in the same spot as Quinn made her way out of Rachel's house and into her car, headed home.

* * *

><p>One week later, and Rachel had seen no sign of Quinn. And if anyone in the glee club had, they sure weren't telling her.<p>

"Brittany, how can you not have seen Quinn when she's living with you?" Rachel asked, cornering the blond before glee that Friday.

Brittany's blue eyes darted around the room in a last ditch effort to find Santana. "Because my cat hid her."

Rachel sighed. "I get it. Can you please just tell me if she's at least doing all right health wise?"

Brittany cheered up immediately, "Yeah! She's doing great physically! Just not emotionally or mentally, at least that's what Santana said."

Rachel face dropped as a familiar voice sprung up behind her. "She's giving you time, peach."

Rachel rolled her eyes as Santana made her way next to Brittany. "Let me guess, from the phrase, "Bruise like a peach"?"

Santana beamed. "Hey! You didn't get as much brain damage from that brick as everyone says you did," she said cheerfully as she wrapped an arm around Brittany. "No, but really, she's giving you time."

"Well I don't need anymore time!" Rachel yelled, stamping her foot.

Santana rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that really just proved your point."

Brittany piped in just as Mr. Schue walked in. "When the time is right, you'll know, Rachel, because you'll be where you need to be and you won't even know how you got there, because your heart will have taken you there when you needed to be there!"

Rachel and Santana both blinked in shock at Brittany's words as Mr. Schue clapped his hands together, signaling the beginning of glee. Rachel sat down next to Puck and Mercedes as she attempted to focus on the current lecture. She eyed Quinn's empty seat and sighed._ Maybe when the time is right, I'll also understand what Brittany just said._

* * *

><p>Another week passed, another Friday, and Rachel sighed as she sat in her sixth period class that Quinn hadn't attended in two weeks. Rachel tapped her pencil against her desk as she tuned out Mr. Schuester's poor attempts at conjugating verbs.<p>

She eyed the clock as her mind roamed. For two weeks she'd been stuck in an emotional limbo: Not singing in glee, not taking notes in class, barely talking. Despite her friends repeated efforts to get her to look alive again, Rachel couldn't shake the empty feeling that she'd been carrying around with her.

A minute passed and Rachel groaned, rolling her eyes and rubbing her hands over her face. _When the time is right, you'll know, Rachel, because you'll be where you need to be and you won't even know how you got there, because your heart will have taken you there when you needed to be there… oh Brittany, what does that even -_

Rachel's hands dropped as her cell phone vibrated in her lap. She drew her head back in surprise as she saw the text from Santana.

"Brit n I ditched last period n went back to her house - saw Q is gone n wont answer her phone. Do u have ne idea where she might've gone?"

Rachel glanced quickly at Mr. Schue to make sure his back was turned before she typed back a response. "Maybe she went to her parent's house? She isn't due for a few more weeks and I think she would have told someone if she'd gone to the hospital. Is any of her stuff gone?"

Rachel waited the longest two minutes of her life before Santana texted back. "All her shit is still here xept her car. U say nething to upset her?"

Rachel practically growled as she typed back - "You know as well as I do that I haven't had any contact with Quinn in 2 weeks. I think that you two-" Rachel paused, an idea suddenly striking her. "I think that you two shouldn't worry. I know where she is." She sent the text and glanced back to the clock. _Twenty minutes before I can go after Quinn…_

She looked down as she got another text from Santana. "W/e u think. Its not like her 2 leave though. I'm not worried, course, B is. U better fix it."

Rachel began typing something back when she heard someone clear their throat above her. The brunette slowly raised her head and saw Mr. Schue standing there, holding out his hand. "Rachel, I'm surprised at you. You know the rules, so I need your phone."

Rachel sputtered, "You can't take my phone! I have a crisis going on."

Mr. Schue folded his arms over his chest and shook his head. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately, Rachel, but you haven't been yourself. If you don't give me your phone now, I'm going to have to send you to the principal's office, and although I don't want to-"

Rachel rolled her eyes and slammed the palms of her hands onto her desk. "Do you not understand, Mr. Schue? There are far more important things going on right now than me not paying attention to you failing to understand that ver is an irregular verb. In fact," Rachel said, almost in awe, "I have to go."

The brunette picked up her backpack, completely oblivious to the class ogling her. Mr. Schue gaped as he put a hand on her arm. "Rachel, if you leave -"

"I understand the consequences, Mr. Schue. But someone needs me right now. Well, to be honest, I need someone right now. I just need to go. I'll see you on Monday." Rachel gently pulled her arm from her teacher's grasp as she slung her backpack over her shoulders. She texted Santana as she walked through the empty halls of McKinley High, ignoring Mr. Schue's calls trailing behind her.

"Pick me up in front of the school, now. I need you to take me to Quinn."

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes later, Santana's car rolled to a stop. She threw the car in park and turned to face Rachel in the passenger's seat. "I don't think she ran away."<p>

Rachel nodded as she eyed the restaurant through the windshield. "She's too pregnant to run away. She wouldn't put her child in danger."

Santana cocked an eyebrow. "Then why did you go running after her?"

Rachel unbuckled her seatbelt. "Same reason you frantically texted me when you saw she wasn't at Brittany's." Santana glared as Rachel picked up her backpack. "Because she's Quinn. She doesn't just disappear for no reason. I'll call you if she's not here." The brunette made her way from the car as Santana watched her go.

Rachel eyed the restaurant sign as she made her way through the same doors that she and Quinn had walked through weeks ago. Rachel knew she was taking a chance on all of this: following Quinn, leaving school, and assuming that Quinn needed her. She didn't know why her feet were bringing her here, but she trusted them as she made her way into Burgundy's.

"Welcome to Burgundy's! Table for one?" the hostess greeted, smiling in an all-too fake way.

Rachel shook her head as she carefully looked around the restaurant. "No… I'm actually -" She stopped short as she caught a glimpse of blond near the back of the restaurant. Beaming, Rachel brushed past the hostess, ignoring the woman's protests. The brunette made her way to the back of the restaurant and sighed in relief as she realized her feet had brought her to the correct place. Quinn was there.

She stood behind the blond as she watched her chew on a bacon cheeseburger. Rachel's backpack dangled from her shoulder as she thought about what she was supposed to say._ I came running after Quinn as if she needed rescuing… but… what am I supposed to say? What if she doesn't want to see me? What if_… Rachel gasped lightly as Brittany's words came crashing back to her. _When the time is right you'll know, because you'll be where you need to be and you won't even know how you got there._

Rachel took a deep breath as everything became clear to her. Everything that had happened so quickly… her and Finn ending before they started, Quinn taking care of her every time she got hurt, neither of them understanding why they were acting this way around the other, this run around that they gave each other that led them back to this place that Quinn had taken her to. Rachel smiled as she remembered how Quinn had sputtered when Rachel had told Quinn that Jesse had never taken her anywhere that nice. Her feelings finally surfaced, and Rachel smiled as she realized she could be honest with Quinn, that she didn't have to fear her.

"You still have one question left," Rachel heard herself say. She watched the blond tense in front of her. Quinn slowly turned her head to the left as Rachel made her way around the booth. She took the seat in front of Quinn, running a hand through her dark hair.

Quinn's eyes roamed Rachel's face as she frowned. Rachel grimaced._ I must look as bad as I feel_. She merely nodded. "I look horrible, I know."

Quinn took a sip from her water. "Does that reflect how you've been feeling?"

Rachel practically smirked, feeling renewed as she sat in Quinn's presence. "It does. Not now, though. Oddly enough, I feel a lot better now."

Rachel watched Quinn bite back a smile. "Someone's balls dropped. Why so cocky, Berry?"

"I'm not cocky, Quinn. Merely confident. Aren't you going to ask how I knew you were here?"

Quinn rolled her eyes and shook her head. "No, I'm not. I thought we established that I gave up trying to make sense of the things that go on between us."

"Then you must ask me your final question."

Quinn eyed the last half of her cheeseburger before sitting back and folding her hands on the table. "Why can't you tell me that you're in love with me too, Rachel?"

Rachel's breath hitched in her throat. This was the exact question she'd been hoping Quinn would ask. She crossed her legs and took a sip of Quinn's water as the blond eyed her with an arched eyebrow.

"I've never been able to tell anyone that I've dated that I love them. It's a combination of not believing them and not feeling it. With you, though, I know that it's real. It happened so fast though… well, not the falling part. But we're still in our sophomore year, Quinn. We haven't even been friends for that long. It just happened so fast… and it's you. Someone like you… it's very hard to grasp that someone like you loves me. I've also been hurt, well… broken, actually, by everyone I've attempted to give my heart to. There's this enormous combination of things that all have the underlying factor that…" Rachel paused, taking a deep breath, "I'm terrified too, just like you said you were. We've gone back and forth over everything, and we fight, and we probably haven't spent enough time actually together and not fighting to know that we love each other.

"But… despite all of that, it is there. I look into your eyes and I just know. I don't know if it will last or even work, or if we'll be accepted, or if you'll just end up murdering me. But it's still there, and it's terrifying, but it's the first time I've really felt it. I do love you, Quinn."

Quinn blinked her wide eyes. "I'm so glad I didn't fall asleep during all of that because I would've missed that quick little thing at the end." Rachel glared; Quinn continued, "I'm honestly not going to try to make sense of anything that has happened between us, Rachel, to lead us to this point. All I know is that the day that gave you that scar," she said, reaching over and running her fingers along the scar under Rachel's eye, "was the day that I got this scar," she finished, bringing her fingers from Rachel's scar and touching them to her own heart.

"I knew that I loved you then, and no amount of excuses could change that. Santana made me confess it to you, whether it was the right or wrong time, and it was true then. Just like it's true now. I've never been in a more complicated situation in my life."

Rachel's eyes were focused on Quinn's heart as a slow frown began to cross her features. "Are you saying that I'm a scar on your heart, Quinn?"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Yeah, a scar. It's not an insult, Rachel."

"Why can't I be like a handprint? Or a tattoo?"

Quinn blinked. "Because, stupid, a handprint can be washed a way and a tattoo can be removed. Scars are forever. Scars have stories."

Rachel bit her lip as she nodded slowly. "So, our scars represent a piece of each other that we will always carry around with us? That explains why I've been feeling so empty these past two weeks. Don't ever give me 'time' like that again."

Quinn smiled as she hesitantly reached across the table and grabbed Rachel's hand. "I won't. Do you honestly think we'll even work…? We make no sense."

Rachel squeezed the blond's hand. "You make no sense. I, on the other hand, am able to express myself rather eloquently."

"When you're not pushing me away or telling yourself that you can't be loved, sure."

"Was that before or after you refused to leave my house and then let me be hit by a brick?"

"Before… after… you know, probably during, too. You have a few emotional problems, you know? What happened to that therapist?"

"I referred him to your house, but, well… you weren't there."

Quinn laughed loudly and Rachel smiled. "To answer your question… I have no idea if we'll actually work, Quinn. But I think it's going to be quite a ride trying to figure it out."

"Is this your way of asking me out, Berry?"

Rachel looked around the restaurant. "I suppose it is, Quinn. It fits rather nicely since this was the scene of our first "date" night."

Quinn smiled as Rachel got up and moved to sit next to Quinn instead of across from her. The blond swept her eyes around the restaurant before she turned back to Rachel. She began to bend her head when the perky brunette beat her, pressing her lips to Quinn's as she snaked a hand through the blond's hair.

"Oh, God, this is disgusting. Thank God I didn't come here to eat."

Quinn smiled against Rachel's lips as the brunette chuckled. They pulled apart and looked to where the voice had come from: behind them. Santana stood there, arms folded over her chest. "I brought Rachel, and I hadn't heard from her, so I wanted to make sure she wasn't dead. I wasn't worried, it's just, Brit would have killed me if I let anything happen to her."

Quinn threw a small smile towards Rachel before furrowing her brows. "Wait, you brought Rachel? And… wait! Rachel, shouldn't you be in sixth period right now?"

Rachel managed to look sheepish as she intertwined her fingers with Quinn's. "Santana informed me that you weren't home… and, well, my heart brought me here!" Quinn cocked an eyebrow as her jaw hung open. "Okay, fine. I yelled at Mr. Schue, walked out of class, and had Santana bring me here because we were looking for you. You can't honestly be mad."

Santana chimed in. "You really can't, Q. It's not like Rachel has a spontaneous bone in her body, so you should be honored that she did that crap for you. And now that I know Berry isn't dead, I'm going to go home to Brittany. Feel free to take your time coming back, Q." Quinn nodded and Santana kept a serious face. "No, I'm serious. Take. Your. Time. As in, come home tomorrow. I've had to spend way too much time away from Brittany lately." With that, the Cheerio turned on her heel and left the restaurant.

Quinn shook her head. "And she called us disgusting?"

Rachel chuckled as an air of silence dropped on the girls. She broke the silence a few minutes later. "So where does this leave us?"

"Where we've always been," Quinn stated, "together, through all of the insanity that is our lives. Is that okay with you?"

Rachel felt a vibration in her pocket and she quickly checked her phone to see a text from Santana. "Congrats, btw. Don't fuck it up."

Rachel pocketed her phone and smiled up at Quinn. "Yeah, yeah that's okay with me." She reached up and pressed a kiss to Quinn's lips. Rachel smiled as she felt the blond smile into the kiss. Rachel pulled away and laid her forehead on Quinn's as she whispered, "There's this quote that goes… turn your scars into stars."

Quinn smiled, and Rachel felt it. She whispered back, "That's what I did, and it worked, because now I have you. You don't need to be scared of anything anymore, Rachel."

Rachel smiled as she closed her eyes, keeping her forehead pressed to Quinn's. "I'm not afraid of anything anymore, Quinn."

Fin.


End file.
